... for becoming a Rabbi. However, Jewish orthodoxy, like `Christian orthodoxy, had been deeply shaken by the new ideas of `the Renaissance, and such luminaries as Galileo, Bacon and `Descartes. In was in this atmosphere of revisionism and fierce `debate that Spinoza found himself increasingly dissatisfied with `the biblical interpretations he received from the Rabbis. His `contacts with the unorthodox Christian intellectual community grew `and he found himself attracted towards the natural science's and `teachings of Descartes. At the age of twenty four, three years `after his father's death, Spinoza's scepticism of the `compatibility of Biblical doctrine with natural science and logic, `led to the Rabbinacal authorities excommunicating him in 1656. As `might be expected, the young Spinoza took this philosophically and `set about earning his living in the highly skilled field of lens `grinding. Spinoza chose to live a quiet ascetic life, and was, by `all accounts, a dignified and ...

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