Gravity and Grace

Simone Weil

Psychology Press, 2002 - Philosophy - 183 pages

Gravity and Grace was the first ever publication by the remarkable thinker and activist, Simone Weil. In it Gustave Thibon, the farmer to whom she had entrusted her notebooks before her untimely death, compiled in one remarkable volume a compendium of her writings that have become a source of spiritual guidance and wisdom for countless individuals. On the fiftieth anniversary of the first English edition - by Routledge & Kegan Paul in 1952 - this Routledge Classics edition offers English readers the complete text of this landmark work for the first time ever, by incorporating a specially commissioned translation of the controversial chapter on Israel. Also previously untranslated is Gustave Thibon's postscript of 1990, which reminds us how privileged we are to be able to read a work which offers each reader such 'light for the spirit and nourishment for the soul'. This is a book that no one with a serious interest in the spiritual life can afford to be without.

Contents

• Gravity and Grace: 1
• Violence: 3
• Imagination Which Fills the Void: 16
• The Cross: 27
• Decreation: 32
• Illusions: 51
• Evil: 69
• Balance and Lever: 92
• the Good: 100
• He Whom We Must Love is Absent: 109
• Attention and Will: 116
• Intelligence and Grace: 128
• Readings: 134
• Meaning of the Universe: 140
• Beauty: 148
• The Social Imprint: 155
• Social Harmony: 170
• The Mysticism of Work: 178

About the author

Born in Paris, Weil came from a highly intellectual family. After a brilliant academic career at school and university, she taught philosophy interspersed with periods of hard manual labor on farms and in factories. Throughout her life she combined sophisticated and scholarly interests with an extreme moral intensity and identification with the poor and oppressed. A twentieth-century Pascal (see Vol. 4), this ardently spiritual woman was a social thinker, sensitive to the crises of modern humanity. Jewish by birth, Christian by vocation, and Greek by aesthetic choice, Weil has influenced religious thinking profoundly in the years since her death. "Humility is the root of love," she said as she questioned traditional theologians and held that the apostles had badly interpreted Christ's teaching. Christianity was, she thought, to blame for the heresy of progress. During World War II, Weil starved herself to death, refusing to eat while victims of the war still suffered.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Gravity and Grace; Routledge classics
• Author: Simone Weil
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Psychology Press, 2002
• ISBN: 0415290007, 9780415290005
• Length: 183 pages
• Subjects: Philosophy / History & Surveys / Modern; Philosophy / Religious; Religion / General; Religion / Meditations; Religion / Philosophy