The Love of God and Man’s Suffering: Simone Weil and Georges Bernanos
Publication Type |
Book Chapter |
Year of Publication |
1996 |
Author |
|
Editor |
Dunaway, John M. Springsted, Eric O. |
Book |
The Beauty That Saves: Essays on Aesthetics and Language in Simone Weil |
Pages |
185-196 |
Publisher |
Mercer University Press |
Place Published |
Macon, Georgia |
Language |
English |
Keywords |
affliction (malheur) |
Annotation |
As is apparent in the title, Bush compares Weil ‘s views on the ‘love of God and human suffering’ to those of Georges Bernanos drawing primarily on Weil’s essay: “The Love of God and Affliction” and the last lecture Bernanos gave in 1947. Bush notes the different socioeconomic circumstances in which Weil and Bernanos lived as well as the very different approaches they took to the Christian tradition claiming Weil fixated on the cross as the centre of her Christianity, while Bernanos focused on incarnation, particularly resurrection. Despite her professed hatred of Rome, Bernanos goes on to argue, Weil’s theological views were shaped by it. He then looks at what he sees as Weil’s neglect of Mary in her theology. He considers Weil’s writing on the love of God noting the way, he claims, she seemed to excluder herself from such love. Finally, Bush contrasts the two thinkers in terms of intellectual humility claiming that although in many ways such humility characterized Bernanos, it was almost absent in Weil. |