Excommunicated from the Jewish community at the age of 23 for heretical practices, Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) decides to dedicate his life to philosophy. His objective? To discover a true good that would "provide him with the eternal enjoyment of supreme and endless pleasure." In the remaining twenty-five years of his life, Spinoza constructs a revolutionary work. How could this man, in the heart of the 17th century, be the precursor of the Enlightenment and our modern democracies? The pioneer of a historical and critical reading of the Bible? The founder of depth psychology? The advocate of philology, sociology, and ethnology? And above all, the inventor of a philosophy based on desire and joy, which overturned our conceptions of God, ethics, and happiness?
In many ways, Spinoza is far ahead not only of his own time, but also of ours. That is precisely what I call the miracle of Spinoza.
F.L.

Starting his narrative from the exemplary life of Spinoza, whom spirits like Goethe, Nietzsche, Freud, and Einstein considered the greatest of philosophers, Frédéric Lenoir makes his abundant thought accessible and presents a philosophical treatise of emancipation. "The Miracle of Spinoza" is the captivating story of the life and thought of a unique thinker, a book that inspires the reader to approach supreme joy and the power to pursue it.
"Let us not mock, let us not mourn, let us not despise, but let us understand.
Joy is the transition from a lesser to a greater perfection.
Souls are not conquered by weapons, but by Love and Generosity.
We do not desire something because we judge it to be good, but, on the contrary, we judge something to be good because we desire it.
We feel and experience that we are eternal."
Maxims of Baruch Spinoza