Spinoza was raised in the Portuguese-Jewish community in Amsterdam. He developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible and the nature of the Divine. Jewish religious authorities issued a "herem" () against him, causing him to be effectively expelled and shunned by Jewish society at age 23, including by his own family. His books were later added to the Catholic Church's "Index of Forbidden Books". He was frequently called an "atheist" by contemporaries, although nowhere in his work does Spinoza argue against the existence of God.