Civil Society, Civil Religion
Publication Type |
Book |
Year of Publication |
1995 |
Author |
|
Publisher |
Blackwell |
Place Published |
Oxford |
Language |
English |
section |
288 |
Keywords |
politics |
Annotation |
Shanks discussion of Weil follows a chapter on Hannah Arendt, contained within a subsection titled "Negative revelation". His work on Weil constantly refers back to Arendt, comparing and contrasting Weil's thought to hers. He begins his reflections on Weil by noting differences between her approach to 'totalitarianism' and that of Arendt. He notes how Weil's understanding of 'roots' and 'rootedness' differed from the fascist ideologies of her day. He continues to compare and contrast Weil's thought to Arendt's focusing on three senses of rootedness: labour, work and action. He offers critical reflection on Weil's attitude towards ancient Israel and ancient Rome in this section, as well as spending considerable time with Weil's ideas about labour. He then goes on to examine Weil's concept of the 'absolute good' again comparing her to Arendt, especially in terms of their attitude towards Christianity. The final part of the chapter looks at the themes of 'auctoritas' (authority) and 'isonomy' (equality) in Weil's work. Shanks offers a brief discussion of Weil's attitude towards political parties in the concluding chapter of his book. |
Notes |
See especially "Simone Weil" pp. 49-67 and "Antipolitics" pp. 202-205 |