Spinoza In The Jewish Lives Series
Jewish Lives is a biography series published by Yale University Press and the Leo Black Foundation. The series published its first volume in 2010 and currently consists of 70 volumes with more on the way. The series aims, in its words to "explore the many facets of Jewish identity" and to "illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences."
A recent addition to the "Jewish Lives" series, "Spinoza: Freedom's Messiah" (2024) is written by the distinguished scholar Ian Buruma, the Paul W. Williams Professor of Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College. Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) lived in the Netherlands and was the son of Jewish, Marrano parents. He received a strong Jewish education but as a young man severely questioned his faith and was excommunicated at the age of 23 in a decree of unusual breadth and severity. Following the excommunication, Spinoza wrote several extraordinary works, including the "Theological-Political Treatise", the "Ethics" and the "Political Treatise" that still are read and discussed. Following the excommunication, Spinoza never returned to Jewish life.
Buruma's short book offers an eloquent, accessible account of what is known of Spinoza's life and an assessment of the continuing importance of his life and work. The book draws heavily on recent scholarly studies of Spinoza, including the work of Steven Nadler, Yirmiyahu Yovel, Jonathan Israel, and Stewart Hampshire. Buruma points out the complexity of Spinoza's thought and the different interpretations it has received over the years. Buruma does not explore the intricacies of Spinoza's philosophy but rather places the philosopher in the context of his time and also explains what he finds of continued importance. As befitting a volume in a series devoted to Jewish Lives, Buruma also explores the difficult question of Spinoza's relationship to Judaism, a question which has led to many different responses. Buruma finds that there is "an argument to be made that Spinoza did indeed live a Jewish life, but it was a modern Jewish life." His life "exemplified how to be Jewish without believing in Judaism."
In short chapters, Buruma explores Spinoza's relationship to his surroundings. He begins with Spinoza's early life and the nature of the Marrano-based Jewish community of Amsterdam. He discusses Spinoza's relationship to the synagogue which excommunicated him with attention to the distinguished rabbis of the day and to other excommunicated heretics, such as Uriel da Costa. Buruma discusses what is known about Spinoza's secular education in studying Latin and the sciences. Perhaps most importantly, Buruma discusses the Netherlands of Spinoza's day, its relationship to the Jewish community, and its tension between republicanism and monarchy. This political history gets substantial discussion in considering the nature of Spinoza's thought. On a more individual level, Buruma discusses Spinoza's life following the excommunication. Buruma qualifies the picture that ofen emerges of Spinoza as a loner. He was independent but had many friends in the Dutch community and received an increasing degree of public recognition. Buruma traces Spinoza's friends and his contacts through the several moves he made during his short life. While no saint, Spinoza led a modest, harmless and celibate life. (it is unclear whether the last was by choice)
Buruma discusses how Spinoza rejected the concept of God and of a revealed law in Judaism and rejected as well the doctrine of personal immortality. Spinoza famously spoke of "God or Nature" ("deus sive natura") which often is equated to a form of pantheism. Buruma shows how Spinoza's thought was regarded as heretical by the more conservative parts of the Netherlands religious community and by many others. Still Spinoza had adherents and supporters. The sources of Spinoza's thought remain matters for disagreement, and Buruma identifies many influences including Judaism and Marranism, the thought of Descartes, and the liberal Christian community
in which Spinoza moved, though he never became a Christian. Different scholars place different emphases on these sources.
Buruma focuses more on Spinoza's political thought than on his philosophy and metaphysics. This probably would not be Spinoza's own emphasis. He discusses what he sees as the importance of Spinoza throughout the book, but especially in the opening and concluding chapters. He writes in the book's opening chapter: "if one thing can be said unequivocally about Spinoza, it is that freedom of thought was his main preoccupation." Freedom of thought was threatened in Spinoza's day by organized religion while today, Buruma points out, it is threatened by many ideologies, both left and right.
In his concluding chapter, "Spinozism", Buruma sees the importance of Spinoza's philosophy in its commitment to reason, truth, and universality, values that he finds under attack in our contemporary world. Reason, truth, and universality are part of what Buruma finds Spinoza meant by the freedom to think. Buruma writes:
"It is for this reason, and not for his Christ-like image, that Spinoza should be seen as a model for our difficult times. when the very idea of reason is regarded with so much suspicion by people who insist on the supremacy of moral beliefs. Closely tied to the idea of reason is the notion of universality. Not so long ago, many people in the Western world took it for granted that the capacity to reason was only the property of white Christian men: Asians, women, and other benighted members of the human race were incapable of it. Spinoza, with all his seventeenth-century notions of male superiority never subscribed to that. Reason was universal, or it was nothing."
Buruma's book has received mostly positive reviews. The book meets the goals of the "Jewish Lives" series and also will be valuable to a broad readership. As Buruma concludes his study: [Spinoza] showed the way in which all human beings can think freely and discover truths which apply to everyone. For that, we all owe him a debt, not as a 'good Jew' or a secular saint, but as a great and humane man." This book should inspire thought and reflection, which is a result Spinoza would surely have wanted.
Robin Friedman
