Spinoza ´s Heresy: Immortality and the jewish mind

Steven Nadler explores an intriguing episode in early modern intellectual history: the expulsion of the great philosopher Spinoza from his Portuguese-Jewish community in Amsterdam. Why was Spinoza excommunicated? Nadler´s investigation of this simple question offers new perspectives on Spinoza´s thought and the Jewish religious and philosophical tradition from which it arose.
Contents: 1: Cherem in Amsterdam; 2: Abominations and Heresies; 3: Patriarchs, Prophets, and Rabbis; 4: The Philosophers; 5: Eternity and Immortality; 6: The Life of Reason; 7: Immortality on the Amstel.