Simone Weil Between Paganism and the Bible : A Hermeneutic Dialogue with Ricoeur, Levinas, Schelling and Pascal

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Year of Publication

2002

Author

Gabellieri, Emmanuel

Editor

Wierciński, Andrzej

Book

Between the Human and the Divine: Philosophical and Theological Hermeneutics

Series Volume

1

Pages

456-470

Publisher

The Hermeneutic Press

Place Published

Toronto

Language

English

Translator

Blundell, Boyd S.

Series Title

Hermeneutic series

Keywords

antisemitism
Pascal, Blaise
Christianity
Durkheim, Emile
Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von
Judaism
Ricoeur, Paul
Hebrew Bible

Annotation

This chapter provides an in-depth and well-informed discussion of Weil’s anti Judaism especially in relation to her desire to connect pagan traditions to Christianity. It begins with a brief reflection on some of Ricoeur’s comments about Weil, then goes on to consider the attitude towards Jewish Scripture in the modern European philosophical tradition, and the impact of this tradition on Weil’s thought. Gabelleri turns to looks at Weil’s reading of Durkheim and its influence on the development of her understanding of the Jewish tradition particularly in light of her literal reading of the Jewish scripture. He then goes on to evaluate Levinas’s critique of Weil followed by a comparison of Weil’s thoughts on the relationship between paganism, Jewish and Christian thought to that of Schelling and Pascal. Gabellieri concludes his discussion by raising some provocative questions for a further investigation of Weil’s thought on these subjects