Abstract

An architect of modern liberal democracy, Baruch Spinoza concerned himself with the right to think freely, notwithstanding religious orthodoxy, and pioneered the critique of the Bible as a historical artifact rather than an indubitable record of truth. The article contains an error of fact in the final paragraph, an editorial insert, that attributes the perpetuation of the ban on Spinoza to “Orthodox Judaism” rather than the Amsterdam synagogue from which he defected.