Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in 1632 into a family of Portuguese Jewish merchants who had fled persecution in Portugal. He was educated in the Jewish community's schools and worked in the family business after his father's death. In 1656 the leaders of the Amsterdam synagogue issued a writ of herem, expelling him from the community, apparently because of his opinions. He later took the Latin name Benedictus. Spinoza supported himself in part by grinding optical lenses and lived modestly in Rijnsburg, Voorburg and The Hague, corresponding with scientists and philosophers. His Theological-Political Treatise (1670), published anonymously, argued for reading the Bible historically and for freedom of thought, and it caused a scandal. He declined a professorship at Heidelberg in order to keep his independence. His Ethics, set out in the style of geometry with definitions and proofs, describes God or Nature as a single substance. It was published after his death from lung disease in The Hague in 1677.

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Faith: Raised in Amsterdam's Portuguese-Jewish community, which issued a writ of excommunication (herem) against him in 1656. Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy