2. The essence of things are from all eternity, and unto all eternity shall remain immutable; The existence of God is essence; Therefore... - Benedictus de Spinoza

The philosophy of Spinoza has replaced both Marxism and capitalist neo-liberalism. While affected timelessness is inherent in the Hardt-Negri rhetoric – hence their over-easy references to antiquity or the Middle Ages – the centre of gravity in this book is firmly in the later 17th century. Once regarded as an important precursor of the Enlightenment and of Marxist materialism, the thought of Spinoza (1632–77) is redeemed in these pages, as a wisdom awaiting its vindication in a globalised epoch yet to come. In vital ways, Spinoza told the whole story: his apparently abstract pantheistic philosophy explained history itself, future as well as past, and the globalisation process simply favours a return to such understanding, after the mounting sorrows and delusions of modernity.

I make this chief distinction between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge; this, I take it, is the reason why Christians are distinguished from the rest of the world, not by faith, nor by charity, nor by the other fruits of the Holy Spirit, but solely by their opinions, inasmuch as they defend their cause, like everyone else, by miracles, that is by ignorance, which is the source of all malice; thus they turn a faith, which may be true, into superstition.

يُسلِّم موسى بوجود موجودات تحلُّ محلَّ الله (ويحدُث ذلك بلا شكٍّ بأمرٍ من الله وبتفويضٍ منه) أي بموجودات أعطاها الله السُّلطة والحقَّ والقدرة لإرشاد الأُمَم ولحِمايتها والمُحافظة عليها. ولكنه نادى بأنَّ هذا الموجود الذي وجب على اليهود عبادَتُه هوَ الإله المُهيمِن الأعلى. وبعبارةٍ أُخرى، (أي بتعبيرٍ عبري) فهو إله الآلهة؛ لذلك يقول في نشيد الخروج (١٥: ١١): «من مثلك في الآلهة يا رب.» ويقول يترو (١٨: ١١): «الآن علمت أن الرب عظيم فوق جميع الآلهة.» أي أنَّني يجِب أن أُسَلِّم مع موسى بأن يَهوه أكبر الآلهة جميعًا، وله قُدرة لا نظير لها، ومع ذلك، فهل اعتقد موسى أنَّ الله خلق هذه الموجودات التي تقوم مكانه؟ يحقُّ لنا أن نَشُكَّ في ذلك لأنه — على ما نعلم — لم يَقُل شيئًا يتعلَّق بخلقِها ونشأتها