On God's Love of Man by Baruch Spinoza
Spinoza argues that the love of God already shown in human beings, together with its consequences and eternal duration, makes further discussion of joy in God or peace of mind unnecessary. He then examines whether there can also be a divine love of mankind. God cannot be said to love or hate men in response to their love or hatred, since this would wrongly suppose that people act by free will independently of a first cause and would make God mutable, beginning to love or hate because of something outside Himself. God’s lack of love for mankind does not mean that He abandons humanity. Man and all things exist in God, and God consists of all things in such a way that they form one thing: God Himself. There can therefore be no love in God for something other than Himself. From this follows that God does not give laws in order to reward obedience and punish transgression. Divine laws are the unchangeable regulations of Nature: the weakest yields to the strongest, no cause produces more than it contains, and all things are subject to such laws. Because everything happens according to God’s decision, divine laws cannot be transgressed. Human laws, by contrast, can be transgressed because they arise from people’s efforts to secure their own well-being, which may conflict with the well-being of the whole of Nature and even contribute to the destruction of other things. Divine laws are stronger and final, while human laws are subordinate. Yet human purposes can still serve the wider order of Nature. Bees labor only to provide for themselves, while man, who tends them, seeks honey. Likewise, an individual man may pursue only the limited ends visible to his finite nature, but Nature, being infinite, uses him along with all other things as an instrument toward ends beyond his own. A man who uses his understanding rightly and attains knowledge of God recognizes two kinds of law within himself. One arises from fellowship with God and is necessary, since man is always necessarily united with God and must live according to the laws of that union. The other arises from fellowship with the modes of Nature and is not necessary in the same way, since man can separate himself from other men. Spinoza then asks how God makes Himself known to man. God cannot do so through spoken words or external signs, because a person would first have to understand the meaning of the words or signs and already know enough to identify them as divine. Voice, thunder, and lightning cannot themselves establish that God is speaking. God’s self-disclosure through external signs is therefore impossible and unnecessary. God is known directly through His own essence and the human Understanding, which is immediately united with Him and cannot exist or be understood apart from Him. No created thing can bring the Understanding into closer contact with God. Nor can God be known through a finite thing: such a thing would have to be better known than God, although God is the cause of knowledge and essence, and no individual thing can exist or be understood without Him. A finite effect also cannot establish the existence of an infinite cause, since unknown effects may result from many causes. God can and need make Himself known to men only through Himself.
By Baruch Spinoza · First published 1660 · Genre: Philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion · 1,675 words
First lines
Thus far we have shown sufficiently, we think, what our love of God is, also its consequences, namely, our eternal duration. So we do not think it necessary here to say anything about other things, such as joy in God, peace of mind, etc., as from what has been said it may easily be seen what there is to or should be said about them. Thus (as we have, so far, only considered our love of God) it still remains to be seen whether there is also a divine love of us, that is, whether God also loves mankind, namely, when they love Him. Now, in the first place, we have said that to God no modes of thought can be ascribed except those which are in His creatures; therefore, it cannot be said that God loves mankind, much less [can it be said] that He should love them because they love Him, or hate them because they hate Him. For in that case we should have to suppose that people do so of their own free will, and that they do not depend on a first cause; which we have already before proved to be false. Besides, this would necessarily involve nothing less than a great mutability on the part of God, who, though He neither loved nor hated before, would now have to begin to love and to hate, and would be induced or made to do so by something supposed to be outside Him; but this is absurdity itself.
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On God's Love of Man is listed on Textopian as an essay by Baruch Spinoza, dated 1660 CE.
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- Work type: Essay
- Author: Baruch Spinoza
- Date: 1660 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion, Rationalist Philosophy, Theology
- Length: 1,675 words
- Structure: 1 section, 10 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Difficult (College Level)
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Genres
- Philosophy — The work is a sustained philosophical argument concerning God, humanity, knowledge, causation, and the nature of divine law.
- Metaphysics — It examines God's relation to all existing things, divine unity, infinity, necessity, causation, and the status of individual beings as modes of Nature.
- Philosophy of Religion — The passage directly addresses divine love, revelation, miracles, God's knowledge by human beings, and the distinction between theological claims and rational understanding.
- Rationalist Philosophy — Its method relies on logical deduction, necessary principles, and the power of the intellect while rejecting knowledge of God through external signs, spoken revelation, or miracles.
Tags
philosophy · metaphysics · theology · ethics · rationalism · pantheism · monism · religious philosophy · divine nature · human nature · intellectual love · reason