Spinoza, Vico, and the Imagination of Religion

Abstract

Early modern analysis of religion as imaginative construct played a pivotal role in the theoretical development of the study of religion as a discipline detached from theology. Spinoza and vico applied this analysis to the classic western mythological texts--The bible and the homeric epics, Respectively. Moreover, Vico drew more heavily upon the work of spinoza than has been previously recognized. This dependence appears not only in vico's conceptualization of the "imaginative ((as contrasted to rational() universal," but in his critical canons for interpreting ancient texts and in his recognition that concepts and institutions are inseparable in the formation of archaic religion.