Book Forged in Hell

Preface xi Acknowledgments xvii Chapter 1: Prologue 1 Chapter 2: The Theological-Political Problem 17 Chapter 3: Rasphuis 36 Chapter 4: Gods and Prophets 52 Chapter 5: Miracles 76 Chapter 6: Scripture 104 Chapter 7: Judaism, Christianity, and True Religion 143 Chapter 8: Faith, Reason, and the State 176 Chapter 9: Libertas philosophandi 200 Chapter 10: The Onslaught 215 A Note on Texts and Translations 241 Abbreviations 243 Notes 245 Bibliography 267 Index 277

Steven Nadler is the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His books include "Rembrandt's Jews", which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; "Spinoza: A Life", which won the Koret Jewish Book Award; and "The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Story of Philosophers, God, and Evil in the Age of Reason" (Princeton).

Honorable Mention for the 2011 PROSE Award in Philosophy, Association of American Publishers "In this clearly written and accessible book, Nadler offers up a historical and philosophical analysis of Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise... Each chapter not only focuses on sections of the Treatise but also explains the historical context of the Treatise and why many saw it as such a dangerous and corrupting book... [Nadler] has definitely succeeded in writing an extremely rewarding and engaging book."--Library Journal (starred review) "[T]his is a groundbreaking analysis of an incendiary text."--Booklist "Steven Nadler's new study of the Treatise, A Book Forged in Hell, succeeds... While his tasks are primarily expository and contextual, Nadler, who is the author of the standard biography of Spinoza, puts forward a substantive thesis as well... Guided by this set of claims, Nadler takes us through the Treatise in a detailed but seamless account of Spinoza's arguments and aims. One measure of his integrity, indeed, is that while endorsing the common portrayal of Spinoza as a founder of modern secularism, Nadler is sensitive to some of the ways in which Spinoza is not to be taken as the harbinger of the secular mindset. In fact, A Book Forged in Hell raises the important question of how appropriate it is to view Spinoza as a philosophical founder of contemporary secularism and especially of contemporary liberalism. It also raises the question of whether Spinoza should be understood as a Jewish thinker, if so, to what extent."--Zachary Micah Gartenberg, Jewish Review of Books "Steven Nadler has written a delightfully lucid and philosophically thorough account of the Treatise that helps to explain how and why this singular text became the object of such opprobrium and why we should see its appearance as the 'the birth of the secular age.'... What makes Nadler's so welcome a contribution is the care and the clarity of his philosophical exposition, and his restraint