From: Rabbi James D. Cohn <rabbi.mailbox@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 10:08 AM
Subject: Rabbi Cohn's Spinoza Minicourse: for distribution
To: Sky Kershner <skykershner@gmail.com>
Spinoza: The True Philosophy
Selected Wednesdays in October & November
Instructor: Rabbi James Cohn
Temple Israel
2312 Kanawha Blvd. East
Charleston WV 25311
"I do not say that I have discovered the best philosophy," Spinoza once said. "Only that I have found the true one."
Spinoza, perhaps more than any other thinker, had the courage to accept, and implement, the consequences of his beliefs. He asked what was true, and then organized his life to accommodate the truth.
Why did Einstein say that if he believed in any God, it was the God of Spinoza? Why is this seventeenth-century lens-maker considered the father of modern science, the historical study of the Bible, and psychology?
We'll explore these questions in a three-session miniseries on Spinoza at Temple Israel on three consecutive Wednesday nights from 7:00 to 8:30:
October 27
November 3
November 10
Everyone is invited. Handouts and website resources will be provided. No textbook needs to be secured for the course, reservations are not required, and there is no fee.
The ideas we discuss will be difficult, to be sure; but as Spinoza said, "All good things are as difficult as they are rare."
The attraction of Spinoza's philosophy to late eighteenth-century Europeans was that it provided an alternative to materialism, atheism, and deism. Three of Spinoza's ideas strongly appealed to them:
- the unity of all that exists;
- the regularity of all that happens; and
- the identity of spirit and nature.
--
Sky Kershner, 304-346-9689 x13
Kanawha Pastoral Counseling
www.kpcc.com
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