In 1656, a young Amsterdam merchant was excommunicated by his Portuguese-Jewish community in the harshest terms it had ever used. Baruch Spinoza was accused of unspecified 鈥渉orrifying heresies,鈥� but the precise reasons for his expulsion remain a mystery. When he published his Theological-Political Treatise in 1670, which was condemned as 鈥渢he most atheistic book ever written,鈥� he began to reveal to the world what his heresies may have been. Yet ever since the eighteenth century, most readers and scholars have assumed that Spinoza was a pantheist鈥攅ven a 鈥淕od-intoxicated man,鈥� as the poet Novalis put it. After all, how could a person whose books are suffused with talk of God be an atheist? In Spinoza, Atheist, Steven Nadler, one of the world鈥檚 leading authorities on the philosopher, aims to settle the question and show that that鈥檚 exactly what he was.
The audiobook is narrated by Robert G. Slade. Start listening to a sample chapter here.
About the Author
Steven Nadler is Vilas Research Professor and the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison. His many books include Rembrandt鈥檚 Jews, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Spinoza: A Life, Think Least of Death: Spinoza on How to Live and How to Die (快色直播), and A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza鈥檚 Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age.
About the Narrator
Robert Slade is an actor, voice artist, and the narrator of numerous audiobooks, including Endure by Alex Hutchinson and Alberto Villoldo鈥檚 The Wisdom Wheel.