Christian Platonism of Simone Weil

Eric O. Springsted is co-founder and President of the American Weil Society.E. Jane Doering is a professor in the Core course program and coordinator of the Teachers as Scholars program at the University of Notre Dame

"This volume is a welcome addition to the small but developing body of literature on Weil's thought. It brings together the most important strand of recent North American and French scholarship on Weil. This collection would be a valuable place to start reflection in this direction for Christian thinkers with such concerns." —Scottish Journal of Theology"Devoted to the importance of Platonism to Weil, this anthology also undertakes a broad attempt to measure, through the lens of her work, the potential for a renewed appropriation of Plato for Christian self-reflection. Part of a recent trend toward the recovery of Plato as a philosopher of wisdom and ethical pertinence as well as of technical accomplishment, the essays here contribute significantly both to that recovery and to the study of Weil herself." —Religious Studies Review". . . provides a helpful analysis from different perspectives of Weil's original approach to Plato. It sheds light on Plato and interpretations of Plato, as well as on Weil's thought." —Faith and Reason"These 12 essays by a group of international scholars discuss the ways in which Simone Weil (1909-1943) was indebted to Plato and how her readings of Plato challenge contemporary philosophy, theology, and spirituality." —Theology Digest". . . a veritable intellectual feast to be discovered when one opens this volume. This is indeed a strong collection of essays. It brings together some of the brightest Weil scholars in the world, all focusing on the crucial topic of Weil's Christian Platonism. Doering and Springsted are to be thanked for making these fine essays available to the reading public." —Cahiers Simone Weil"This is a book of essays by different authors-some principally scholars of the work of Simone Weil, others philosophers of religion and theologians-whose general area is indicated by the title. It is a book to be welcomed, if only because Weil's work is important and interesting, but, with one or two notable exceptions, is little discussed in mainstream English-speaking philosophy of religion. . . this is a book worth reading." —Ars Disputandi"Anyone interested in Simone Weil will want, and need, to read this superb collection." —Diogenes Allen, Princeton Theological Seminary"A distinguished and timely collection. Throughout these essays, the richness of Weil's thought emerges over against the complexity of the Platonic tradition. As such, the volume makes a notable contribution to Weil scholarship and to the contemporary revival of Christian Platonic theology." —John Kenney, Saint Michael's College"This remarkable and penetrating collection of essays on Simone Weil's religious philosophy illumines the living intersection between serious metaphysics and ethics. The authors carefully examine this relation that much post-modern reflection has until now searched after only to skim, but that Weil herself managed to embrace with breathtaking intellectual discipline and self giving. The book as a whole is a bracing testimony to the deep moral consequences of classical ontology and its challenging Christian reorientation." —The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner, Ascension Episcopal Church, Pueblo, Colorado"These essays—some written by leading specialists in Simone Weil's thought, others by prominent philosophers of religion and theologians—are especially valuable not only for elucidating Weil's reading of Plato but also for showing what one or another form of Christian Platonism (and there are several!) can mean for us today." —James A. Wiseman, O.S.B., The Catholic University of America