Summary: This paper is presented in three parts: Firstly, it offers an exposition of Spinoza’s views on belief and faith, including the role of imagination and fiction in religious life. Secondly, it considers how Eliot’s views on belief and faith and fiction develop aspects of Spinoza’s view but also depart from that view. Thirdly, it raises the question of whether the philosophy of Spinoza can be expressed in aesthetic terms. Moira Gatens is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. Her publications include Feminism and Philosophy (1992), Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power and Corporeality (1996), Collective Imaginings: Spinoza, Past and Present (1999) and Feminist Interpretations of Benedict Spinoza (2009).
