![]() Peter Winch in Simone Weil: The Just Balance (Cambridge University Press, 1989) brilliantly connects Weil’s underlying philosophy to the linguistic philosophical tradition that clusters around Wittgenstein. For this, one must turn to several other recent books. Unfortunately, Gabriella Fiori’s book, though valuable, does not make Weil’s thought more accessible to academic interests. It requires sustained effort to master her thought sufficiently to connect it fruitfully to the issues theologians, philosophers and social and political scientists discuss. But probably the biggest reason for her marginal status is that she is a truly radical and original thinker whose thought does not immediately factor with academic theology or indeed with any field of study. In addition, the very first public notice of her was as a mystic, a label that has stuck to her, and academic theologians are not well disposed to mystics. When she was in New York City for several months waiting transport to England, she spent much of her time in Harlem, because she liked to be with those who suffered, rather than at Union Seminary. Perhaps Weil is neglected because she was not professionally trained in theology or personally acquainted with academic theologians. Paul Ricoeur is French, as are many deconstructionists, and they are taken very seriously. Some women, however, are read by theologians, but Weil is not a force even among feminist theologians. Possibly because she was a woman and was French. Why then is she still at best only on the edges of academic theology? Many of her works have had good publishers and translators. Her works are substantial in quantity - about ten volumes - and beautifully written. In our own day such writers as Robert Coles and Iris Murdoch have been profoundly influenced by Weil. Eliot, who not only wrote an arresting introduction to Weil’s Need for Roots but contributed to the cost of a headstone for her previously unmarked grave. She attracted the attention and admiration of André Gide, Albert Camus and T. In addition, her intellectual powers and education were of the highest order. If personal heroism is a recommendation, as it is in the case of Bonhoeffer, Weil’s credentials are impeccable. She once gave shelter to Trotsky (and is said to have argued him into the ground over the nature of social oppression), was a soldier at the front in the Spanish Civil War, sought dangerous service in World War II and served with the Free French in London. By working in factories and on farms she sought to understand how the oppression of work could be alleviated and the social hierarchy dismantled. ![]() She was a spokesperson on behalf of striking workers, a volunteer teacher in night schools for railroad workers, and an active trade unionist. This is especially strange considering the large amount of attention theology gives these days to social and political issues and Weil’s own passionate, often heroic involvement in social and political action. Though Simone Weil (1909-43) is read by many people from a wide variety of backgrounds and with a wide variety of interests, she remains a marginal figure in the world of theology. ![]() Reviewing a recent biography of Simone Weil, Professor Allen reflects on the power of her life and thought and her curiously marginal status among theologians. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock. Current articles and subscription information can be found at. 770-772, copyright by the Christian Century Foundation and used by permission. ![]() This article appeared in the Christian Century, August 22-29, 1990 pp. This article is excerpted from his contribution to The Truth about Jesus, edited by Donald Armstrong III and published this month (March, 1998) by Eerdmans. Diogenes Allen teaches philosophy at Princeton Theological Seminary. ![]()
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