The Excommunication of Spinoza: Trouble and Toleration in the "Dutch Jerusalem"

Baruch de Spinoza, one of the most important philosophers of his time, and certainly the most radical, was excommunicated from Amsterdam's Sefardic synagogue at the age of twenty-four. The immediate reasons for the cherem pronounced against him remain hidden, although there are some good reasons for thinking that he was already propounding the heretical views that are found in his later writings. In this essay, however, I look closely at the political context for Spinoza's excommunication, especially in the relationship between Amsterdam's Jews and Dutch society.