Jonathan I. Israel
Spinoza: Life & Legacy
Oxford UP
2023
Spinoza: Life & Legacy
Oxford UP
2023
21 years ago, Jonathan Israel—professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies—revolutionized the history of secularism and modernity with his book Radical Enlightenment (2002), which argued that Spinoza’s two great books of the 1670s (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus and Ethica) were uniquely impactful in the emergence of modern secular Europe, aka the Enlightenment. He is known for emphasizing the unique causal importance of books and ideas in cultural change across many European nations, from the Reformation era to 19th century, but above all the 18th century and French Revolution.
This month OUP is publishing his 1300+ page biography of Spinoza and study of his significance.
Any fans of Israel out there? I can’t recommend him highly enough to anyone with a sincere interest in secularism, its problems, and its origins. Before Israel, Paul Hazard’s WW2-era classic « Crisis of the European Mind » told a gripping tale of transformation in Europe in the late 1600s, early 1700s. Israel radicalized and extended Hazard’s emphasis on ideas and the decline of theology and religion in Western Europe.
I am ordering it today.