#  History Workshop, Work-In-Progress Seminar: Evelyn Rose Maude, "How Spinoza Saved the Word of God" 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **March 31, 2025** 

 01:30PM - 02:30PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Robbins Library, Emerson 211**  



 

 



 

Abstract: Almost all previous scholarship holds that Spinoza's practice of Biblical criticism contradicts his stated method of Biblical criticism. Against this consensus, I argue that Spinoza's method does not contradict his practice. I defend a novel interpretation of Spinoza's method and of why it does not contradict his practice, which I call the Two Texts Explanation. I argue that Spinoza distinguishes two texts—the Bible and the Word of God—and the apparent contradictions are resolved because the contradictory predicates are ascribed to different texts. I suggest that Spinoza is entitled to this distinction by analogy with the method of textual philology, which relies on a distinction between archetype (here the original text of the Bible) and autograph (here the original message from God).



 

 



 

 

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