Crossing: Simone Weil, Mystics, Politics

Publication Type	Thesis
Year of Publication	2005
Author	Robert, William
Academic Department	Religious Studies
Pages	287
Publisher	University of California, Santa Barbara
Place Published	Santa Barbara
Work Type	Diss
Language	English
Advisor	Thomas Carlson
Keywords	affliction (malheur) anorexia cross Dark night (nuit obscure) decreation desire detachment mysticism self suffering Pseudo-Dionysius Bynum, Caroline Walker Agamben, Giorgio Butler, Judith Lacan, Jacques Eckhart, Meister Irigaray, Luce John of the Cross, Saint Certeau, Michel de Foucault, Michel
Annotation	Drawing on the work of a number of Christian thinkers including Pseudo-Dionysius, Meister Eckhart, St. John of the Cross and the modern theorists and scholars Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Caroline Walker Bynum, Giorgio Agamben, Michel de Certeau, Jacques Lacan, and Luce Irigary, Robert traces the interweaving of mysticism, politics and the body, in the life and thought of Simone Weil. In so doing, he argues, attempts to discuss any aspect of Weil’s thought in isolation from the others, as many scholars have attempted to do, results in distorted and inaccurate understanding. Finally, Robert wants to show an examination of these three ‘crossings’ of mysticism, politics and the body, demonstrate the importance of Weil’s work for modern discussions of ‘religious and social ethics and of human subjectivity’.