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In this book a group of renowned international scholars seek to
discern the ways in which Simone Weil was indebted to Plato, and
how her provocative readings of his work offer challenges to
contemporary philosophy, theology, and spirituality. This is the
first book in twenty years to systematically investigate Weil's
Christian Platonism. The opening essays explore what actually
constitutes Weil's Platonism. Louis Dupre addresses the Platonic
and Gnostic elements of her thought with respect to her negative
theology, and the Christian Platonism of her positive theology as
found in her reflections on beauty and the Good. Michel Narcy
provides a close historical reading of Weil and discusses the
degree to which her teacher Alain influenced her Platonism. Michael
Ross contends that Weil's interest in Plato is in "ethical
Platonism." Essays by Robert Chenavier and by Patrick Patterson and
Lawrence E. Schmidt consider the importance of matter and
materialism in Weil's Platonism and argue that it is key to
understanding her political thought. A middle group of essays
addresses more classically metaphysical themes in Weil's thought.
Vance G. Morgan examines her use of Greek mathematics. Florence de
Lussy analyzes Weil's distinctive, mystical Platonic reflections on
Being in the last notebooks from Marseilles. Emmauel Gabellieri
discusses Weil's "metaxology," that is, the mediation and
relatedness of Being, shown in her speculative thought. Martin
Andic underlines the importance of her notion of attention. The
final set of essays considers Weil's relevance for contemporary
spirituality and moral theology. Cyril O'Regan examines her
thinking on violence and evil. Eric Springsted looks at the
conceptual links that exist between Weil and Augustine. Finally,
David Tracy contends that Weil is the foremost predecessor of
recent attempts to reunite the mystical and prophetic. Drawing
together some of the top Weil scholars in the world, this
collection offers important new insights into her thought, and will
be appreciated by philosophers and theologians.
In this book a group of renowned international scholars seek to
discern the ways in which Simone Weil was indebted to Plato, and
how her provocative readings of his work offer challenges to
contemporary philosophy, theology, and spirituality. This is the
first book in twenty years to systematically investigate Weil's
Christian Platonism. The opening essays explore what actually
constitutes Weil's Platonism. Louis Dupre addresses the Platonic
and Gnostic elements of her thought with respect to her negative
theology, and the Christian Platonism of her positive theology as
found in her reflections on beauty and the Good. Michel Narcy
provides a close historical reading of Weil and discusses the
degree to which her teacher Alain influenced her Platonism. Michael
Ross contends that Weil's interest in Plato is in "ethical
Platonism." Essays by Robert Chenavier and by Patrick Patterson and
Lawrence E. Schmidt consider the importance of matter and
materialism in Weil's Platonism and argue that it is key to
understanding her political thought. A middle group of essays
addresses more classically metaphysical themes in Weil's thought.
Vance G. Morgan examines her use of Greek mathematics. Florence de
Lussy analyzes Weil's distinctive, mystical Platonic reflections on
Being in the last notebooks from Marseilles. Emmauel Gabellieri
discusses Weil's "metaxology," that is, the mediation and
relatedness of Being, shown in her speculative thought. Martin
Andic underlines the importance of her notion of attention. The
final set of essays considers Weil's relevance for contemporary
spirituality and moral theology. Cyril O'Regan examines her
thinking on violence and evil. Eric Springsted looks at the
conceptual links that exist between Weil and Augustine. Finally,
David Tracy contends that Weil is the foremost predecessor of
recent attempts to reunite the mystical and prophetic. Drawing
together some of the top Weil scholars in the world, this
collection offers important new insights into her thought, and will
be appreciated by philosophers and theologians.
An innovative book, When Fiction and Philosophy Meet explores the
intersection between the philosophy of Simone Weil from Paris,
France, and the fiction of Flannery O'Connor from the Southern
state of Georgia, USA. In an era of war, of unprecedented human
displacements, and of ethnic, racial, and religious fears the ideas
of these two intellectuals bear on our present condition. Both
women keenly desired to perceive the realities of good and evil
inherent in human existence and to bring this truth to the
consciousness of their contemporaries. Embracing their belief that
truth is eternal but must be transposed and translated, generation
after generation, in language appropriate to each age, the authors
acquaint O'Connor readers with concepts in Weil's religious
philosophy as seen in O'Connor's stories. Doering and Johansen
simultaneously illustrate how Weil's philosophy, when embodied in
fiction, reveals the lived realities of the human condition across
time and space. Simone Weil and Flannery O'Connor were audacious
thinkers with inquiring minds who held clear and firm religious
convictions. Each applied her understandings of enduring spiritual
truths to the challenges of nihilism and social oppression as seen
in the spreading totalitarianism and the distressing legacy of
slavery throughout human history. Both Weil and O'Connor crossed
disciplinary boundaries and influenced their respective fields with
innovative ideas and artistic expressions. Taking their cues from
these writers, Doering and Johansen bring these two remarkable
women into a four-voiced dialogue-Simone Weil and Flannery O'Connor
with Doering and Johansen-by engaging each writer in the forms of
her own genre and inviting readers to enter a dialogue of courage
with Weil and O'Connor in the postmodern and post-Christian world.
Simone Weil's philosophical and social thought during her short
life (1909-1943) was intimately engaged with the nature of power
and force, both human and natural, and the problems inherent in the
use of force. Weil argued vehemently for pacifism, then moved
toward a guarded acceptance of the use of force under very specific
circumstances, in the context of the rise of Nazism. Ultimately she
came to a nuanced and unique perspective on force and on the
preservation of human dignity, in the aftermath of several profound
mystical experiences during the last years of her life. E. Jane
Doering carefully examines and analyzes the material in Weil's
notebooks and lesser-known essays to illuminate her evolving
thought on violence, war, and injustice. In addition, Doering
addresses Weil's engagement with the Bhagavad Gita during her final
years, a text that reoriented and enlightened Weil's activist and
intellectual search for moral value in a violent world. Apart from
small excerpts, none of the four volumes of Weil's notebooks, only
recently published in French, have been translated into English.
Simone Weil and the Specter of Self-Perpetuating Force contains
Doering's expert translations of numerous notebook entries. The
book will interest Weil scholars, those in French studies, and
those who explore interdisciplinary topics in philosophy, religious
studies, history, and political science.
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