Theological-Political Treatise Benedict de Spinoza

The vaunted religious tolerance of the Dutch Republic was under strain in the mid-seventeenth century. War with England over trade and imperial dominance affected the Northern Netherlands' prosperity. The conservative leaders of the Dutch Reformed Church put pressure on civil authorities to curtail freedom of expression and the circulation of ideas to which they objected. In the political sphere conservatives sought to restore the position of stadholder, or head of state, with a member of the House of Orange. During the First Stadtholderless period (1650–1672) Johan de Witt functioned as head of state and was in favor of policies of religious toleration, which had helped fuel prosperity. Jews could practice their religion openly and were an integral part of the commercial sector. There were also a great number of Christian sects that contributed to the religious and intellectual ferment of the Republic. Some dissenters began openly challenging religious authorities and religion itself, as Spinoza had done, leading to his expulsion from the Jewish community in Amsterdam in 1656. A like-minded friend and kindred intellectual spirit, Adriaan Koerbagh (1633–1669), had published two works scathing of religion. Because they were published in Dutch rather than Latin, and therefore accessible to a much wider readership, he quickly came to the attention of religious authorities, arrested, and thrown into prison, where he quickly died. His death was a hard blow for Spinoza and his reaction was to commence writing in 1665 what became the TTP.[6] Heeding the danger of writing in Dutch, Spinoza's treatise is in Latin. Unlike the dense text of the Ethics, the TTP is much more accessible and deals with religion and politics rather than metaphysics. Scholars have suggested that the text of the TTP incorporates the Apologia ("defense") he had written in Spanish after his expulsion from the Jewish community in 1656.