$52.50
- Hardcover
264 pages
- Release Date
14 July 2026
Summary
From Pulitzer Prize finalist Steven Nadler, a fascinating historical and philosophical narrative that unravels the mystery of whether Spinoza was an atheist.
In 1656, a young Amsterdam merchant was excommunicated by his Portuguese-Jewish community in the harshest terms it had ever used. Baruch Spinoza was accused of unspecified ‘horrifying heresies’, but the precise reasons for his expulsion remain a mystery. When he published his Theological-Political Treatise
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780691285238 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0691285233 |
| Author: | Steven Nadler |
| Publisher: | Princeton University Press |
| Imprint: | Princeton University Press |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 264 |
| Release Date: | 14 July 2026 |
| Weight: | 558g |
| Dimensions: | 31mm x 151mm x 225mm |
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Critics Review
“A magisterially clear introduction to Spinoza’s arguments for living virtuously without the need of a judging God.” * Kirkus *
“A fresh and fascinating take on one of Western thoughts’ most important and enigmatic minds… . a nuanced defense of Spinoza that unfurls like the best kind of philosophical argument.”—Rabbi Marc Katz, Jewish Book Council
“Compelling… . Steven Nadler achieves something considerable, which is to make Baruch Spinoza feel relevant to contemporary debates about religious belief and its absence… without reducing him to our terms.”—Joe Moshenska, Literary Review
“With his lucid writing style and marvelously clear mind… . [n]o one has done more to make the abstractness and intricacies of Spinoza’s thought explicable and clear to a great many, and for this [Steve Nadler] deserves very high praise indeed… . nearly all of Nadler’s many fans… . will rightly treasure [Spinoza, Atheist] as a helpful and inspiring guide to a longstanding and endlessly fascinating philosophical paradox.”—Jonathan Israel, Church History
”[Nadler is] fair, clear and good-natured in framing the historical debate and grappling with recent accounts.”—Charlie Taben, APA Blog
Steven Nadler
Steven Nadler is Vilas Research Professor and the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His many books include Rembrandt’s Jews, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Spinoza: A Life, Think Least of Death: Spinoza on How to Live and How to Die, and A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age.
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