Simone Weil

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Year of Publication

2007

Author

Radzins, Inese

Editor

Compier, Don Pui-lan, Kwok Rieger, Joerg

Book

Empire and the Christian Tradition: New Readings of Classical Theologians

Pages

405-422

Publisher

Fortress

Language

English

Chapter

28

Keywords

collective
colonialism
force
nationalism
roots (uprootedness)

Annotation

The chapter begins with a brief biographical introduction to Weil and the context in which she lived. Radzins next presents and briefly reflects on Weil’s writing on colonialism, especially her critique of the ‘ideology of progress’, the violence arising from ‘the collusion of Christianity and empire’, the inherent danger of the collective for ethics, and the problem of ‘uprooting’ that underlies colonialism. In the final part of the chapter, Radzins turns to consider some of the solutions Weil proposes for these problems in her work, especially in The Need for Roots.