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Spinoza in His Time: the 17Th-Century Religious Context

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Spinoza in His Time: the 17Th-Century Religious Context philosophies Article Spinoza in His Time: The 17th-Century Religious Context Joke Spaans Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Utrecht University, Janskerkhof 13-13a, 3512 BL Utrecht, The Netherlands; [email protected] Abstract: In one of the last paragraphs of his Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670), Spinoza extolls the harmony between people of a diversity of faiths, maintained by the magistracy of Amsterdam. However, he also seems apprehensive about the possibility of the return of chaos, such as during the Arminian Controversies in the Dutch Republic in the 1610s and the English Civil War in the 1640s and 1650s. The so-called Wolzogen affair in 1668 probably rattled him. Spinoza’s fears would, however, prove groundless. Theological controversy in the public church was often fierce and bitter, but did not threaten the integrity of the State after 1619. Political and ecclesiastical authorities supported discussions and debate in which a new theological consensus could be hammered out. From the examples of Petrus de Witte’s Wederlegginge der Sociniaensche Dwaelingen and Romeyn de Hooghe’s Hieroglyphica, I will argue that such freedom was not limited to the universities, under the aegis of academic freedom, but that Spinoza’s call for free research and open debate was in fact everyday reality. Keywords: Spinoza; Petrus de Witte; Romeyn de Hooghe Citation: Spaans, J. Spinoza in His Time: The 17th-Century Religious Context. Philosophies 2021, 6, 27. 1. Introduction https://doi.org/10.3390/ In Spinoza’s lifetime, the Dutch Republic rose to an impressive peak of power and philosophies6020027 wealth. Wartime conditions suited the ill-assorted handful of provinces. They never stopped trade—on the contrary, the unsuccessful attempts of the Spanish enemy to block Academic Editors: Henri Krop and expansion of existing shipping routes towards the Far East and the New World, where Pooyan Tamimi Arab exotic spices came from and mountains of gold were rumoured to exist, provoked an armed response that won the Dutch a global emporium. Together with the manufacture of Received: 20 February 2021 quality goods, the cultivation of industrial crops and efficient dairy farming at home, as Accepted: 26 March 2021 Published: 1 April 2021 well as piracy on the high seas, this created a wealthy elite of merchants and entrepreneurs as well as a thriving artisanal class. Strong social networks in cities as well as in rural Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral areas buffered the shocks of personal misfortune due to sickness, too many young mouths with regard to jurisdictional claims in to feed, or old age, and this in turn fostered a resilient workforce. The booming Dutch published maps and institutional affil- economy absorbed a massive immigration of labour migrants, both skilled and casual, and iations. religious refugees from all over Europe, almost effortlessly. Inevitably, fortune did not smile equally upon all, and the astounding military and economic successes had their victims. Yet, despite its darker sides, the designation ‘Golden Age’ fits the Dutch 17th century [1,2].1 Prosperity manifested itself in a thriving market for luxury goods, art and books. Rivalry between the seven provinces resulted in no Copyright: © 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. fewer than five full-fledged universities and ten Illustrious Schools, testifying to a lively This article is an open access article intellectual culture as well. The academic climate was highly competitive and internation- distributed under the terms and ally oriented [3]. Knowledge production spilled over from the Latinate academies into a conditions of the Creative Commons much broader milieu of skilled artisans, inventors, artists and writers. In the absence of Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// censorship, except on publications that were considered outright seditious, blasphemous creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ or slanderous, they found information on every conceivable subject in the thriving Dutch 4.0/). book market, also in the vernacular, and contributed to knowledge production in their 1 The way Prak in 2020 rewrote his earlier book reflects the recent discussion on the term ‘Golden Age’ in the Netherlands. Philosophies 2021, 6, 27. https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies6020027 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/philosophies PhilosophiesPhilosophies2021 2021, 6, ,6 27, x FOR PEER REVIEW 22 of of 1212 turnDutch [4 ,book5]. Although market, thealso Dutch in the Reformedvernacular, church and contributed was the public to knowledge church of theproduction Republic, in andtheir the turn many [4,5]. and Although various the religious Dutch Reformed dissenters church facedrestrictions was the public in their church freedom of the ofRepublic, public worshipand the many and access and various to public religious office, dissenters they were fa excludedced restrictions neither in from their thefreedom economy, of public nor fromworship intellectual and access culture to public and office, debate. they Spinoza were excluded himself neither is an eloquent from the example economy, of nor this. from In whatintellectual follows, culture we will and look debate. at the Spinoza context himself of Spinoza’s is an eloquent thought: example the religious of this. diversity, In what thefol- theologicallows, we will controversies, look at the context and the of Spinoza’s general culture thought: of freethe religious debate in diversity, the Dutch the Republic theological of hiscontroversies, days. and the general culture of free debate in the Dutch Republic of his days. 2.2. ReligiousReligious DiversityDiversity InIn oneone ofof thethe lastlast paragraphsparagraphs ofof hishis TractatusTractatus theologico-politicustheologico-politicus,, SpinozaSpinoza extollsextolls thethe harmonyharmony betweenbetween peoplepeople ofof aa diversitydiversity ofof faiths,faiths, maintainedmaintained byby thethe magistracy of Amster- dam.dam. InIn thisthis excellentexcellent city,city, hehe writes,writes, ‘all‘all kindskinds ofof people,people, belongingbelonging toto everyevery nationnation andand professingprofessing everyevery faith,faith, livelive togethertogether inin perfectperfect unity’unity’ [[6]6] (chapter(chapter 20,20, §§ 15).15). AnAn attemptattempt toto visualisevisualise thisthis diversitydiversity yieldsyields somethingsomething likelike FigureFigure1 .1. What What you you see see is is a a contemporary contemporary mapmap ofof Amsterdam.Amsterdam. EachEach ofof thethe dotsdots representsrepresents aa househouse ofof prayerprayer thatthat waswas inin useuse duringduring thethe 17th17th century,century, andand thethe dotsdots areare colour colour codedcoded forfor thethe various various Christian Christian confessionsconfessions andand thethe JewsJews [[7]7] (pp.(pp. 412–413).412–413). FigureFigure 1.1. MapMap ofof Amsterdam,Amsterdam, designeddesigned byby JohannesJohannes dede Ram,Ram, ca. ca. 1683,1683, RijksmuseumRijksmuseum AmsterdamAmsterdam sign.sign. RP-P-AO-20-46,RP-P-AO-20-46, overlaidoverlaid withwith anan impressionimpression ofof thethe locationslocations ofof churcheschurches andand synagogues.synagogues. WhatWhat strikesstrikes the the eye eye is is that that the the Reformed Reformed Church, Church, as as the the result result of anof an extensive extensive building build- programme,ing programme, had had the usethe ofuse old of andold and new new church church buildings buildings evenly evenly spread spread throughout throughout the oldthe cityold city centre centre as wellas well as theas the recently recently built built neighbourhoods neighbourhoods around around it: it: the the yellowyellow dots.dots. ReformedReformed immigrantsimmigrants fromfrom Francophone,Francophone, AnglophoneAnglophone oror GermanGerman speakingspeaking landslands couldcould attendattend servicesservices in in their their own own designated designated buildings buildings (yellow (yellow dots dots marked marked F, E, DF, respectively).E, D respec- Yettively). the ReformedYet the Reformed churches werechurches far outnumbered were far outnumbered by the Catholic by ‘hiddenthe Catholic churches’: ‘hidden the redchurches’: dots. Various the red other dots. religiousVarious other groups religio wereus numerous groups were enough numerous to have enough several to places have ofseveral worship places at theirof worship disposal: at their the relativelydisposal: the prosperous relatively Mennonites prosperous (salmonMennonites dots) (salmon in the prestigiousdots) in the westernprestigious half western of the city, half the of onthe average city, the poorer on average Jews (blue)poorer at Jews the eastern(blue) at side, the Philosophies 2021, 6, 27 3 of 12 the numerous Lutherans (orange dots) in the centre and near the waterfront where many of them found work. At a glance, one can see that Reformation and Revolt had not turned the Dutch Republic into a Calvinist nation. Amsterdam, the hub of trade and finance, and the largest of the Dutch cities, may have been religiously the most diverse, but when we broaden our view to the country as a whole we can see how unsuccessful the Reformed church had been in winning hearts and minds of the Dutch and how diversity reigned all over. Brabant and Limburg had remained overwhelmingly Catholic. But also in numerous villages in the rural heart of Zuid-Holland, a Reformed minister had to make a congregation work with only a handful of parishioners among a solidly Catholic local population. Similar instances of strong Catholic presence could be found in Utrecht,
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