Spinoza On State & Religion, Judaism & Christianity

Robert Schine’s lucid translation of Hermann Cohen’s sustained assault on Spinoza’s theories of religion, reason, and politics renders a key essay accessible to the English-language reader. Cohen is the leading representative of Jewish rationalism in the twentieth century. In his philosophical critique of Spinoza, we find a defense of the rationality of Judaism, indeed, of rationality as such. A superb interpretive Introduction complements the translated text. Students of Spinoza, of Jewish philosophy, of philosophy of religion, and of the relations between religion and state are all in Prof. Schine’s debt.
– Alan Mittleman, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Hermann Cohen’s polemic against Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise is one of the most loyal, profound, and genuine articulations of Judaism’s philosophical and moral foundation. The publication of Cohen’s essay in English with the incisive Introduction by Robert Schine is a valuable contribution to the understanding of Jewish Thought as it encounters the complexity of the modern condition.
– Moshe Halbertal, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem