The Excommunication of Spinoza: Trouble and Toleration in the "Dutch Jerusalem".

From: Shofar | Date: June 22, 2001| Author: Nadler, Steven | Copyright information

Baruch de Spinoza, one of the most important philosophers of his time, and certainly the most radical, was excommunicated from Amsterdam's Sefardic synagogue at the age of twenty-four. The immediate reasons for the cherem pronounced against him remain hidden, although there are some good reasons for thinking that he was already propounding the heretical views that are found in his later writings. In this essay, however, I look closely at the political context for Spinoza's excommun...

Read all of this article with a FREE trial to HighBeam Research

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from HighBeam Research

Sephardic Amsterdam and the myths of Jewish modernity.(REVIEW ESSAYS)
The Jewish Quarterly Review ; AMSTERDAM'S SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY during the Dutch Golden Age has long attracted particularly avid attention. Per capita, indeed, the seventeenth-century Amsterdam Sephardim may well rank among the most intensively studied Jews in history. Generally thought to have numbered only about three thousand
The Excommunication of Spinoza: Trouble and Toleration in the "Dutch Jerusalem".
Shofar ; Baruch de Spinoza, one of the most important philosophers of his time, and certainly the most radical, was excommunicated from Amsterdam's Sefardic synagogue at the age of twenty-four. The immediate reasons for the cherem pronounced against him remain hidden, although there are some good reasons
Spinoza, liberalism, science, and contemporary judaism.(Benedict Spinoza)
Shofar ; For centuries Benedict Spinoza has been regarded as everything from an antisemite to anti-Biblical. These and similar charges are not supported by recent analyses. Spinoza was an intellectual figure who believed deeply in a Deity while opening up the Torah to the same kind of criticism that would
Books: How to find true happiness Ben Rogers on the life of a bold metaphysical thinker who believed in choice and caution; Spinoza: A Life by Stephen Nadler Cambridge pounds 22.95 Within Reason: A Life of Spinoza by Margaret Gullan- Whur Pimlico pounds 14
The Independent - London ; Benedict de Spinoza (1632-77), a product of the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic , is perhaps the greatest metaphysician since Plato, an original thinker, in some ways eerily modern. Deeply impressed by the scientific discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo and Descartes, Spinoza was the first
AMSTERDAM'S ARTFUL ALLURES
Chicago Sun-Times ; AMSTERDAM A block from the diamond factory we'd just toured, I turned the corner onto Albert Cuypstraat with my 76-year-old mother, and there they were: a half-dozen of Amsterdam's redoubtable prostitutes. Garishly costumed in next-to-nothing finery, they displayed themselves in a row of
Amsterdam, With Aplomb: Europe's `Free Spirit' Bounces Back
The Washington Post ; Amsterdam, the Dutch say, "heeft wer le`f"-the city "has life again." After years of making news primarily as the drug capital of Europe and setting records in overdose deaths, prostitution, street crime and violent urban squatters ...
SHORT OF SUCCESS, FULL OF PRIDE; TOUR OF OHIO BEGINS AT AMSTERDAM
Dayton Daily News ; A is for Amsterdam. Not the big Amsterdam in Holland. The little Amsterdam on the western edge of Jefferson County. This Amsterdam's the one whose name was drawn out of the hat to be first in our alphabetical journey around Ohio to mark the bicentennial. That's why I wended down serpentine Ohio 43
Koistinen, Olli and John Biro, editors. Spinoza: Metaphysical Themes.(Book Review)
The Review of Metaphysics ; KOISTINEN, Olli and John BIRO, editors. Spinoza: Metaphysical Themes. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. x + 255 pp. Cloth, $49.95--This collection of eleven previously unpublished essays should serve both as a valuable resource for Spinoza studies and as a potent stimulus to them.
Spinoza's leftovers
Jerusalem Post ; MEIR RONNEN Jerusalem Post 03-26-2004 Headline: Spinoza's leftovers Byline: MEIR RONNEN Edition; Up Front Section: Books Page: 33 Friday, March 26, 2004 -- REMBRANDT'S JEWS by Steven Nadler. The University of Chicago Press 250 pp. $25 It is fast becoming axiomatic that books devoted to the
Thursday Book: The philosopher's philosopher WITHIN REASON: A LIFE OF SPINOZA BY MARGARET GULLAN-WHUR, JONATHAN CAPE, pounds 20
The Independent - London ; BERTRAND RUSSELL wrote of Spinoza that he was "supreme" in ethics, if not in metaphysics, "the noblest and most lovable of the great philosophers" and predictably anathematised as wicked during his life and for much of the 17th century. Accused of "horrendous heresies", which he could not be bribed