Philosopher · Early modern
Baruch Spinoza
1632–1677 · Rationalist pantheism
Expelled from the Amsterdam synagogue in 1656; never a Christian; the purest modern pantheist.
Spinoza identified God with Nature as the one infinite substance, of which minds and bodies are modes, and deduced an ethics of blessedness through the “intellectual love of God” in geometrical order. His Theological-Political Treatise founded modern biblical criticism and argued for freedom of thought under a sovereign who controls public religion.
Why he matters: He is the standard against which the Church's teaching on creation and the real distinction of God and world (Vatican I) is measured, the ancestor of German idealism and of the historical-critical method, and the clearest case of what happens when reason is made the sole judge of revelation.
Where to be careful
His pantheism and the necessity of the world's flowing from God are anathematized by Vatican I (Dei Filius, canons 1.3–1.5); his denial of free will, personal immortality, miracles and the authority of Scripture, and his subjection of religion to the state, are all contrary to the faith; his works were placed on the Index.
Reading
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EthicsBaruch Spinoza · Part I on God is the pantheism itself; Part V the intellectual love of God.
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Theological-Political TreatiseBaruch Spinoza · The founding text of biblical criticism and of the secular state.
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Spinoza: A LifeSteven Nadler · The best biography; read with Dei Filius at hand.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.