Michael Goldfarb tells the story of Dutch philosopher Benedict Spinoza, who 350 years ago, asked 'who is God?' and what role should religion play in government. Show more Michael Goldfarb tells the ...

“Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity” by Rebecca Goldstein (Schoken, $19.95). In high school, I read and reread two fluent, erudite surveys of philosophy until the pages of the ...

Key works about Spinoza’s critical role in the formation of modern Jewish identity Arguably, no historical thinker has had as varied and fractious a reception within modern Judaism as Baruch (Benedict ...

“Spinoza: Six Reasons for the Excommunication of the Philosopher,” a silver screen biography of the life and legacy of one of philosophy’s founding fathers, Baruch “Benedict” Spinoza, makes high drama ...

I last reviewed Jonathan Israel’s Radical Enlightenment on this site in 2001 just after it came out in hardback. Why return to it now? The book itself would justify another review since it is a large ...

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Michael Goldfarb tells the story of Dutch philosopher Benedict Spinoza, who, 350 years ago, asked “who is God?”, and what role religion should play in government. In the middle of the 17th century, ...