 In the 1965 preface to the English translation of Spinoza’s Critique of Religion, Strauss describes the beginnings of his intellectual journey by stating that “This study of Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise was written during the years 1925–28 in Germany. The author was a young Jew born and raised in Germany who found himself in the grip of the theologico-political predicament” (SCR, p. 1). Also in 1965 Strauss’s The Political Philosophy of Hobbes was published, with a new preface by the author, for the first time in German. There Strauss refers to the “theologico-political problem,” deeming it “the theme of my studies” (GS 3, p. 8).