Tania
Norell, A Comprehension of Spinoza's God. Through the Dichotomy of Labels.
Master Thesis Lund University Sweden, CENTRUM FÖR TEOLOGI OCH
RELIGIONSVETENSKAP, 2015 [cf. & PDF]
Abstract:
The 17th century philosopher Spinoza is
known for his concept of God as One Substance, God or Nature and therefore
considered as a monist and categorized as a naturalist. He has been labeled an
atheist and God-intoxicated man, as well as a determinist and pantheist, which
I perceive to be dichotomies. The problem, as I see it, is that Spinoza’s
philosophy and concept of God has mainly been interpreted through a dualistic
mind-set, traditional to philosophers and theologians of the West, but Spinoza
has a monistic worldview, and this has consequences in regards to the
comprehension of what Spinoza’s concept of God entails and what a relationship
“with” God implies. The labels panentheist and necessitarianist are discussed
and the label of theologian argued. The thesis methodology is constructive
because the purpose is to provide a theoretical foundation that has the
potential to be applied in dialogues about God between the vast varieties of
believers and non-believers alike, as well as across boundaries of
contradicting worldviews and academic disciplines, and this focus on functionalism
is inspired by a theory that calls for the furthering of inter-disciplinary
dialogue between the subject areas philosophy of religion and theology
specifically. My personal worldview is that there might well be One Substance,
God or Nature, but that does not necessarily mean that there is one truth that
is valid, but rather that all truth claims may be of value. The thesis
therefore provides yet another lens through which one can view and relate to the
attitude of there being an “Other” or “others.”
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