Spinoza’s Radical Theology : the Metaphysics of the Infinite

FIVE STARS.  I’ve long been asking fellow students of philosophy who their favorite philosopher might be.  Well, Professor Charlie Huenemann’s book has me convinced:  next to Socrates/Plato, in the modern era, mine is Bennie Spinoza.  This excerpt is from the first page of his concluding chapter, titled Spinoza vs Nietzsche:

Spinoza may have been the first philosopher to propose a metaphysical vision that so thoroughly integrates the deep reverence in ancient religion with the remorseless necessity of modern physics.  He saw that nature is closed — no loopholes, no exceptions, and no magic — and indifferent to our plight.  But he also experienced something divine in nature that had been discerned as well in revealed religion, although not in full clarity.  He proposed not a compromise, but an integration: yes, nature is as cold and indifferent as a mechanistic physics implies, and, yes, the light of scripture is an expression of the reverence due to nature.  He asked that metaphysics and religion take a step forwards and together into a synthesis that preserved the essence of each.  (p.131, paperback edition, Acumen Publishing.)

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