Neal Grossman, PhD, is an emeritus associate professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is author of Conversations with Socrates and Plato: How a Post-Materialist Social Order Can Solve the Challenges of Modern Life and Insure Our Survival. He is also author of The Spirit of Spinoza: Healing the Mind.

Here he points out that the 17th century philosopher, Benedict Spinoza, was excommunicated from the Jewish community of Amsterdam. He did not believe that God was wholly separate from creation, but rather that the universe is created from God and is, therefore part of God. We are like cells in the body of God. Spinoza was a rationalist. The main thrust of his philosophy was to enable individuals to have the experience of unity with the divine. As such, he was one of philosophy’s greatest mystics.

(Recorded on October 21, 2019)

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Published on July 29, 2025