What Kind of Jew Was Spinoza?

It is one of the great paradoxes of modern history that one of the most important Jewish philosophers who ever lived – indeed, the man who had perhaps the greatest influence on modern Judaism – is the one Jewish philosopher to have been excommunicated.

Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) occupies a central place in the development of modern Jewish history. He exemplified the first modern Jew, coming to typify a distinctly modern form of Jewish identity. Yet even today, over three hundred years after his death, the question remains: “What kind of Jew was Spinoza?” What was the relation between Spinoza and Judaism and how did he transform the Jewish tradition? And perhaps most importantly, how did his transformation of Judaism bear on the development of modernity? Spinoza was without doubt the first to put what later became known as the Jewish Question at the center of modern philosophy.

This course will examine these questions through a close reading of Spinoza’s most important Jewish text, The Theologico-Political Treatise (1670). For some readers, this work more than fully justifies the ban on Spinoza which has not been lifted even until this day. For others, the treatment of Spinoza puts him in a long line of martyrs who have suffered persecution for the cause of freedom of thought and opinion. The legacy of Spinoza remains, even today, a hotly contested one.

In addition, this class will focus on a number of philosophers, political writers, and even novelists and playwrights who have seen Spinoza variously as a heretic, an atheist, a free-thinker, and even the founder of political Zionism. We will conclude with a reading of David Ives’ play The New Jerusalem and debate whether the ban on Spinoza should be lifted.

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