Professor of Religious Studies Heidi Ravven recently gave an invited talk at The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. “Spinoza on the Patriotic Love of the Ancient Israelite Commonwealth” was presented as part of a symposium featuring authors whose contributed essays were published in Jewish Virtue Ethics, edited by Geoffrey Claussen, Alexander Green, and Alan Mittleman (SUNY Press, 2023). The volume includes a chapter on “Spinoza’s Virtue Ethics,” contributed by Ravven.
The symposium explored Jewish approaches to the virtues of love and humility, and larger philosophical and disciplinary questions related to virtue ethics and the Jewish tradition. Ravven’s talk was taken from her current book project, Science and Ceremony: Remaking American Civil Religion in a Spinozist Key.
