Spinoza and the Irrelevance of Biblical Authority

"Spinoza's Theological Political Treatise (1670) is a landmark both in democratic political theory and in the history of biblical interpretation. Spinoza championed liberty of thought, speech and writing by discrediting the Bible as the standard for truth and a source of public law. Applying a new historical criticism, he showed that biblical teaching and law were irrelevant for a modern pluralist state and its intellectual life."--Jacket.