God and Concept-Formation

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Year of Publication

2000

Author

Phillips, D. Z. (Dewi Zephaniah)

Book

Recovering Religious Concepts: Closing Epistemological Divides

Pages

211-226

Publisher

Macmillan

Place Published

London

Language

English

Keywords

action
God
Thibon, Gustave
love of God

Annotation

Phillips discusses God and concept formation in Weil's work as, he argues, it was one of the central concerns in it. He begins by challenging the division between mysticism and metaphysics, often drawn by Weil scholars such as Gustav Thibon. Phillips goes on to argue that Weil herself would dismiss such a division as created by a failure to give human action a central place in the understanding of how humans experience the world. Phillips then goes on to offer an in-depth examination of Weil's thought on the 'forms concept-formation take in religion' (p. 214), focusing particularly on the notion of the love of God. See also "Turning God into one Devil of a Problem" pp. 103-128. Note brief references to Simone Weil elsewhere in the book, especially pp. 152-155