Who is Baruch Spinoza?

Spinoza was widely denounced as an atheist, even though his views on religion were beginning to influence the thinking of Deists and French materialists and were paving the way for what became known as “higher criticism” of Scripture. Spinoza took the radical step of replacing religious tradition with rational, scientific reasoning and of subjecting religion to scientific inquiry. In Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670)—justification for intellectual and religious freedom—he rejected the basis for revealed religion by denying the supernatural. Spinoza published Tractatus Theologico-Politicus without putting his name on the book; nevertheless, the work was uniformly banned and sold with false title pages. Because his authorship of the work was an open secret, Spinoza was condemned as a notorious atheist. While he was negotiating to publish Ethics, rumors spread that a book proving God did not exist was in press and complaints were lodged with the Dutch magistrates. Spinoza responded by agreeing to delay publication of his book, which did not appear until shortly after his death in 1677.

The post Who is Baruch Spinoza? appeared first on interaksyonph.