Attending : Thoughts of Simone Weil on Prayer and Service

Publication Type

Journal Article

Year of Publication

1998

Author

Shaw, Marvin C.

Journal

The Unitarian Universalist Christian

Volume

53

Pages

53-57

Language

English

Keywords

attention
compassion

Annotation

Referring to the story of the good Samaritan found in the Christian Bible, Shaw asks the question “What quality of mind made the Samaritan different from those who did not see the need of the man who lay by the roadside?”(p. 54). In response, he turns to some of Weil’s thought on attention, arguing it is the ability to ‘attend’ that made the crucial difference in how people respond to the needs of others.