, “Verbum Dei”. La Scrittura tra insegnamento e comando nel ‘Trattato teologico-politico’

«Verbum Dei». The Scriptures between Teaching and Command in the Theologico-Political Treatise. This article focuses on Spinoza’s notion of the “word of God” starting from Chapters XII, XIII and XIV of the Theological-Political Treatise. In particular, it points out a tension between two levels of Spinoza’s discourse. In the first, the Scriptures prove to be essentially compliant with reason, and it is therefore necessary to separate their universally obligatory nucleus from any other content, with respect to which full individual freedom continues to apply. In the second, faith shows itself to be incompatible with reason, just as the freedom enjoyed by the philosopher is incompatible with the obligations to which the common people must continue to be subject. Finally, the article proposes that the reasons that prevent us from understanding this duplicity of levels of discourse have to do with the presence of both an exoteric and an esoteric level of discourse, and investigates the conditions under which the two levels can be mutually compatible.