Spinoza
freedom's messiah
- ISBN: 9780300248920
- Editorial: Yale University Press
- Fecha de la edición: 2024
- Lugar de la edición: New Haven. Estados Unidos de Norteamérica
- Colección: Jewish Lives
- Encuadernación: Cartoné
- Medidas: 22 cm
- Nº Pág.: 216
- Idiomas: Inglés
Baruch (Benedictus) Spinoza (1632-1677) was a radical free thinker who led a life guided by strong moral principles despite his disbelief in an all-seeing God. Seen by many-Christians as well as Jews-as Satan's disciple during his lifetime, Spinoza has been regarded as a secular saint since his death. Many contradictory beliefs have been attached to his name: rationalism or metaphysics, atheism or pantheism, liberalism or despotism, Jewishness or anti-Semitism. However, there is no question that he viewed freedom of thought and speech as essential to an open and free society.
In this insightful account, the award-winning author Ian Buruma stresses the importance of the time and place that shaped Spinoza, beginning with the Sephardim of Amsterdam and followed by the politics of the Dutch Republic. Though Spinoza rejected the basic assumptions of his family's faith, and was consequently expelled from his Sephardic community, Buruma argues that Spinoza did indeed lead a Jewish life: a modern Jewish life. To Heine, Hess, Marx, Freud, and no doubt many others today, Spinoza exemplified how to be Jewish without believing in Judaism. His defense of universal freedom is as important for our own time as it was in his.
Everyone's Spinoza
The Safe Place
Born to Strife
Driven Out of the Temple
The Dark Years
Far from the Madding Crowd
Secular Salvation
Radical Enlightenment
Mob Rage
Lonely at the Top
His Last Breath
Spinozism
