Editing Pantheism (section)

===Baruch Spinoza===
[[File:Spinoza.jpg|thumb|160px|The philosophy of Baruch Spinoza is often regarded as pantheism.<ref name=Picton/><ref>*Fraser, Alexander Campbell "Philosophy of Theism", William Blackwood and Sons, 1895, p 163.</ref>]]
In the West, pantheism was formalized as a separate theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza.<ref name=Picton/>{{rp|p.7}} Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese descent raised in the [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi Jewish]] community in [[Amsterdam]].<ref name=tws908>{{cite news | first=Anthony |last=Gottlieb | title = God Exists, Philosophically (review of "Spinoza: A Life" by Steven Nadler) | work=The New York Times |date=18 July 1999 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/18/reviews/990718.18gottlit.html | access-date =7 September 2009}}</ref> He developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible and the nature of the Divine, and was effectively excluded from Jewish society at age 23, when the [[Portuguese Synagogue (Amsterdam)|local synagogue]] issued a ''[[Herem (censure)|herem]]'' against him.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/septemberoctober/feature/why-spinoza-was-excommunicated|title=Why Spinoza Was Excommunicated|date=2015-09-01|website=National Endowment for the Humanities|language=en|access-date=2017-09-05|archive-date=8 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180908105602/https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/septemberoctober/feature/why-spinoza-was-excommunicated|url-status=dead}}</ref> A number of his books were published posthumously, and shortly thereafter included in the Catholic Church's ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|Index of Forbidden Books]]''.<ref name=tws9906>{{cite news| title = Destroyer and Builder |magazine=The New Republic | date = 3 May 2012 | url = https://newrepublic.com/book/review/book-forged-hell-spinoza-treatise-steven-nadler| access-date =7 March 2013 }}</ref>

In the posthumously published ''[[Ethics (Spinoza)|Ethics]]'', he opposed [[René Descartes]]' famous [[Dualism (philosophy of mind)|mind–body dualism]], the theory that the body and spirit are separate.<ref name=Plumptre /> Spinoza held the [[Monism|monist]] view that the two are the same, and monism is a fundamental part of his philosophy. He was described as a "God-intoxicated man" and used the word "God" to describe the unity of all substances.<ref name=Plumptre>{{cite book|last=Plumptre|first=Constance|title=General sketch of the history of pantheism, Volume 2|year=1879|publisher=Samuel Deacon and Co|location=London|isbn=9780766155022|pages=3–5, 8, 29}}</ref> This view influenced philosophers such as [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]], who said, "You are either a [[Spinozism|Spinozist]] or not a philosopher at all."<ref name="Hegel's History of Philosophy">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ESNZ3TUdN40C&pg=PA144 |title=Hegel's History of Philosophy |access-date=2 May 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110513033919/https://books.google.com/books?id=ESNZ3TUdN40C&pg=PA144&lpg=PA144&dq=%22you+are+either+a+spinozist+or+not+a+philosopher+at+all%22&source=bl&ots=XRsqJEbyNT&sig=bCClaJ9V6lL_CJbOR-S3zaGwHqo&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result| archive-date= 13 May 2011 | url-status= live|isbn=9780791455432 |year=2003 |publisher=SUNY Press }}</ref> Spinoza earned praise as one of the great [[rationalism|rationalists]] of [[17th-century philosophy]]<ref>Scruton 1986 (2002 ed.), ch. 2, p.26</ref> and one of [[Western philosophy]]'s most important thinkers.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Gilles |last1=Deleuze|title=Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza|date=1990|publisher=Zone Books|chapter=(translator's preface)}} Referred to as "the prince" of the philosophers.</ref> Although the term "pantheism" was not coined until after his death, he is regarded as the most celebrated advocate of the concept.<ref name="Shoham 2010 111">{{cite book|last=Shoham|first=Schlomo Giora|title=To Test the Limits of Our Endurance|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge Scholars|isbn=978-1443820684|page=111}}</ref> His book, ''Ethics'', was the major source from which Western pantheism spread.<ref name="Genevieve Lloyd 1996"/>