Tratado teológico-político (El libro de bolsillo - Filosofía)

Published anonymously in the early months of 1670 with a false imprint, the "Theologico-Political Treatise" occupies a privileged place not only in Spinoza's system (1632-1677), but also in the history of Western thought. The appearance of the work —"a true intellectual revolution"— occurred at a crucial moment, situated between the religious reform that had led to the Peace of Westphalia, and the already incipient political revolutions that would lead to the secular state. Two notions run parallel throughout this work, which was persecuted and banned by churches and and sects: "On the one hand, the need for freedom of thought, which only has a place in a democratic State; on the other hand, the idea of the State as supreme power, the sole guarantor of unity and security and, ultimately, of the social pact that constitutes it". Translation and prologue by Atilano Domínguez Basalo