Matthew Stewart: The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World

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The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World

"A colorful reinterpretation…. Stewart's wit and profluent prose make this book a fascinating read."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Philosophy in the late seventeenth century was a dangerous business. No careerist could afford to know the reclusive, controversial philosopher Baruch de Spinoza. Yet the wildly ambitious genius Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who denounced Spinoza... (read more)

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Rated 4 stars

“This is a book in the vein of Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter and Longitude and The Measure of all Things by Ken Alder, but where those books deal with the discoveries of physical science, this book deals more with philosophy and religion's response to those discoveries.

The approach of the modern world was very threatening to religion and the concept of God. Things which had previously been accepted on faith or because the Bible or the Church told us it was so were increasingly...”

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Rated 3.9 stars

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Rated 4.5 stars

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