Exiled from the Jewish community at the age of 23 for heretical practices, Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) decided to dedicate his life to philosophy. His objective goal? To discover a true good that would "grant him the enjoyment of a supreme and endless joy for eternity." In the twenty-five years that remain for him to live, Spinoza builds a revolutionary body of work.

How could this man, at the heart of the 17th century, be the harbinger of the Enlightenment and our modern democracies? The pioneer of a historical and critical reading of the Bible? The founder of depth psychology? The introducer of philology, sociology, and ethnology? And, above all, the inventor of a philosophy grounded in desire and joy, which overturned our conceptions of God, morality, and happiness?

In many ways, Spinoza is far ahead not only of his time but of ours as well. This is exactly what I call the miracle of Spinoza. F.L. Beginning his narrative from the exemplary life of Spinoza, whom spirits like Goethe, Nietzsche, Freud, and Einstein regarded as the greatest of philosophers, Frédéric Lenoir makes his abundant thought accessible and presents a philosophical treatise on emancipation.

The Miracle of Spinoza is the captivating account of the life and thought of a unique thinker, a book that inspires in the reader the desire to approach supreme joy and the strength to pursue it. "Do not mock, do not lament, do not despise, but understand. Joy is the transition from a lesser to a greater perfection. Souls are not conquered with weapons but with Love and Generosity. We do not desire something because we deem it good, but, on the contrary, we deem something good because we desire it. We feel and experience that we are eternal." Aphorisms of Baruch Spinoza