Spinoza: The First “Modern Jew”?
The Forward has a review by Daniel Schwartz of a new biography, entitled Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity by Rebecca Goldstein. Spinoza, one of the “Big Three” of 17th century rationalism (along with Descartes and Leibniz) was a major force in what has emerged as “modern culture”
According to the reviewer, Goldstein:
finds the intersection between Spinoza's Jewishness and the cosmopolitanism of his thought in the historical experience of the Amsterdam Sephardic world from which he hailed. This community — which became the most prosperous Jewish community in the world in the 17th century — primarily comprised former Marranos from Spain and Portugal, crypto Jews who had escaped the clutches of the Inquisition to become openly practicing Jews in the comparatively tolerant Dutch metropolis.
Looks like an invaluable read for anyone deeply interested the roots of modernity.