Gravity and Grace

by Weil, Simone

• ISBN13: 9780803298002
• ISBN10: 0803298005
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

Summary

Simone Weil, the French philosopher, political activist, and religious mystic, was little known when she died young in 1943. Four years later the philosopher-farmer Gustave Thibon compiled La pesanteur et la grace from the notebooks she left in his keeping. In 1952 this English translation accelerated the fame and influence of Simone Weil. The striking aphorisms inGravity and Gracereflect the religious philosophy of Weil's last years. Written at the onset of World War II, when her health was deteriorating and her left-wing social activism was giving way to spiritual introspection, this masterwork makes clear why critics have called Simone Weil "a great soul who might have become a saint" and "the Outsider as saint, in an age of alienation."

Author Biography

Introducer Thomas R. Nevin is a professor of classical studies at John Carroll University and the author of Simone Weil: Portrait of a Self-Exiled Jew.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION	vii
Thomas R. Nevin
INTRODUCTION	3	(46)
Gustave Thibon
VOID AND COMPENSATION	49	(6)
TO ACCEPT THE VOID	55	(2)
DETACHMENT	57	(5)
IMAGINATION WHICH FILLS THE VOID	62	(3)
RENUNCIATION OF TIME	65	(2)
TO DESIRE WITHOUT AN OBJECT	67	(4)
THE SELF	71	(7)
DECREATION	78	(9)
SELF-EFFACEMENT	87	(3)
NECESSITY AND OBEDIENCE	90	(9)
ILLUSIONS	99	(10)
IDOLATRY	109	(2)
LOVE	111	(8)
EVIL	119	(12)
AFFLICTION	131	(6)
VIOLENCE	137	(2)
THE CROSS	139	(6)
BALANCE AND LEVER	145	(2)
THE IMPOSSIBLE	147	(4)
CONTRADICTION	151	(6)
THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE NECESSARY AND THE GOOD	157	(3)
CHANCE	160	(2)
HE WHOM WE MUST LOVE IS ABSENT	162	(5)
ATHEISM AS A PURIFICATION	167	(2)
ATTENTION AND WILL	169	(8)
TRAINING	177	(5)
INTELLIGENCE AND GRACE	182	(6)
READINGS	188	(3)
THE RING OF GYGES	191	(3)
MEANING OF THE UNIVERSE	194	(6)
METAXU	200	(4)
BEAUTY	204	(5)
ALGEBRA	209	(3)
THE SOCIAL IMPRINT	212	(4)
THE GREAT BEAST	216	(7)
SOCIAL HARMONY	223	(9)
THE MYSTICISM OF WORK	232