After forwarding Cornel West's op ed piece on Spinoza from the Boston Globe I sent as post-script a response by an Ultramontane ( Pre- Vatican Council) Roman Catholic priest criticizing both West and Spinoza. I thought that Father Hennessy's letter had the merit of showing that the organic intellectuals of the Right understand quite well the danger to reactionary thought in all its forms that Spinoza continues to pose. Besides ranting about introducing critical readings of biblical texts and undermining religious belief, Hennessy condemns Spinoza for birthing the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and modern secular godlessness in all its modernist forms (curious that he left out Marxism). As a Spinoza lover, I've always found it ironic how quickly liberals -- including Cornel West-- will rush to claim Spinoza's mantle on tolerance, while ignoring the materialist monism that underlies it. If, as Habermas says, the project of the Enlightenment is unfinished, it's because the bourgeoisie is incapable of historically realizing its emancipatory, universalist and rationalist program in action, while its liberal philosophers are incapable of sustaining it in thought. Hennessy may be a laughable crank (presumably the reason you thought I was sending spam or some such), but he's spot on I think, in the credit that he bestows on Spinoza. Bob Montgomery
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