Abstract

This article offers an overview of Marilena Chaui’s reading of the _Tractatus Theologico-Politicus_ (TTP). Chaui has published numerous books and essays on Baruch Spinoza. Her two-volume study _The Nerve of Reality_ is the culmination of a decades-long engagement with the Dutch philosopher, and her research has been a valuable resource for generations of Latin American scholars. From this extensive output, we focus on Chaui’s main texts on the theological-political, concentrating on her analysis of the concept of superstition and the philosophical language of the TTP, which Chaui calls a “counter-discourse”. Spinoza’s enduring relevance for the interpretation of contemporary phenomena is clarified by Chaui’s analysis of the TTP, which establishes a fundamentally political understanding of superstition.