The first modern Jew Spinoza and the history of an image / [electronic resource] :
Daniel B. Schwartz.
- Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2012.
- 1 online resource (290 p.)
Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; List of Illustrations; Preface and Acknowledgments; Note on Translations and Romanization; Introduction: Spinoza's Jewish Modernities; Chapter 1 Ex-Jew, Eternal Jew: Early Representations of the Jewish Spinoza; Chapter 2 Refining Spinoza: Moses Mendelssohn's Response to the Amsterdam Heretic; Chapter 3 The First Modern Jew: Berthold Auerbach's Spinoza and the Beginnings of an Image; Chapter 4 A Rebel against the Past, A Revealer of Secrets: Salomon Rubin and the East European Maskilic Spinoza. Chapter 5 From the Heights of Mount Scopus: Yosef Klausner and the Zionist Rehabilitation of SpinozaChapter 6 Farewell, Spinoza: I.B. Singer and the Tragicomedy of the Jewish Spinozist; Epilogue: Spinoza Redivivus in the Twenty-First; Notes; Bibliography; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; Y; Z.
Pioneering biblical critic, theorist of democracy, and legendary conflater of God and nature, Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was excommunicated by the Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam in 1656 for his "horrible heresies" and "monstrous deeds." Yet, over the past three centuries, Spinoza's rupture with traditional Jewish beliefs and practices has elevated him to a prominent place in genealogies of Jewish modernity. The First Modern Jew provides a riveting look at how Spinoza went from being one of Judaism's most notorious outcasts to one of its most celebrated, if still highly controve.