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The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy)

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This fine volume in the Cambridge "Companions" series is an essential aid to readers of Baruch Spinoza. Edited by Don Garrett, it includes ten essays on Spinoza's life and thought by ten world-class Spinoza scholars (including the late Alan Donagan, to whom the book is dedicated).

Topics covered are various and pretty much exhaustive. W.N.A. Klever opens the volume with a summary of Spinoza's life and works; the closing piece by Pierre-Francois Moreau traces the influence of "Spinozism" from Spinoza's death through the twentieth century. The eight essays in between discuss, in turn, Spinoza's metaphysics (Jonathan Bennett), his theory of knowledge (Margaret D. Wilson), his natural science and methodology (Alan Gabbey), his metaphysical psychology (Michael Della Rocca), his ethical theory (Don Garrett), his political theory (Edwin Curley, in a piece strikingly entitled "Kissinger, Spinoza, and Genghis Khan," in which he argues that Spinoza was essentially Machiavellian), his theology (Alan Donagan), and his influence on Biblical scholarship (Richard H. Popkin).

The resulting collection is a clear and thorough examination of every essential aspect of Spinoza's thought. My recommendation to new readers of Spinoza: begin with Roger Scruton's fine little book in the "Past Masters" series, and then go on to this one.