Simone Weil and the Dominicans
Courage, Spiritual Resilience, and the Power of Dialogue
In the last years of her life, the French philosopher Simone Weil (1909-1943) found herself drawn into the orbit of the Dominicans, sparking a fascinating exchange of ideas that left an indelible mark on both her philosophy and Dominican theology. In this blog post, we explore the fascinating exchange between Weil's philosophy and Dominican theology, tracing the impact of their encounters on each other's thinking.
Earlier, in 1934, Weil had worked in factories, an experience that theologian Rowan Williams believed shook her intellect to its core, opening her eyes to a mystery lurking within the fabric of existence. Three mystical encounters in 1937 set her on a quest for truth, leading her to engage deeply with Catholicism. Despite her admiration, she never took the step of baptism, choosing instead to stand on the threshold of the Church, championing the rights of those she felt were excluded.
As France fell under German occupation and the Vichy regime took hold, Weil's criticism of the Church sharpened. In 1941, she set out to join the French resistance and found herself in Marseille, where she crossed paths with the Dominicans.
Spiritual Resilience
Joseph-Marie Perrin OP (1905-2002) had been slowly going blind since his teenage years. His ordination in 1929 could only take place after a dispensation from the Holy See, as canon law at the time cited blindness as an obstacle to ordination. Nevertheless, Perrin served as a superior in various Dominican communities and, during the Second World War, became a member of the French resistance, helping Jewish families to escape from the Nazis.
Perrin’s involvement with Jewish refugees should be understood within the larger commitment of the Dominican community in Marseille at the time to Jewish-Christian relations, which had begun well before the war. Inspired by the 1937 papal encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, the community had initiated a series of meetings devoted to dialogue between Jews and Christians.
Thanks to a mutual friend, Weil and Perrin were introduced to each other in June 1941. He soon introduced her to some fellow Dominicans and his friend, the philosopher Gustave Thibon. It was Perrin who prompted her to seriously consider the question of baptism. During the winter of 1941-1942, Weil taught Plato and the Pythagoreans to a circle that used to meet in the crypt of the Marseille convent. Eager to join the French resistance, Simone left for the United States on May 17, 1942. Just before leaving port, she wrote a farewell letter to Perrin that included her ‘spiritual testament’. After the war, Perrin and Thibon began to publish and promote Simone Weil's writings and memory.
Perrin organised a kind of spiritual resistance during the war by publishing the clandestine theological journal Cahiers du Témoignage chrétien. While in Marseille, Weil was involved in the magazine's distribution. It is possible that her conversations with Perrin included the idea of spiritual resilience, a theme she would pick up two years later in the memorandum that became The Need for Roots.
The Needs of Dignity
Perrin introduced Simone Weil to Fr. Louis-Joseph Lebret OP (1897-1966). Lebret, a former sailor, had been working in Brittany to improve the living conditions of poor fishermen in that region. Earlier that year, Lebret founded a ‘community of production and distribution formed by several small organisations locally and in the multifamily network’ in Marseille. It was a cooperative model independent of the state. To its members, it provided a mutual aid mechanism in crises, unemployment, and disease. After the Second World War, Lebret would work at the Ministry of Reconstruction through “economy and humanism” projects. Based on these experiences, Lebret would develop his idea of “dignity needs”, which refers to a class of personal needs that allows people to live dignified lives. There is a close link between Lebret’s “needs of dignity” and Weil’s “needs of the soul”, discussed in The Need for Roots.
Agenda of the Second Vatican Council
After arriving in New York, Simone Weil continued to search for answers to her questions on faith. But her questions proved to be too difficult for many. She felt she was being passed like a hot potato from one expert to the next. In the end, Jacques Maritain suggested that she should contact Fr. Marie-Alain Couturier (1897-1954). He proved to be sympathetic to her questions. Weil became so impressed by him that she urged her brother to send his son to Couturier for religious instruction. In this context, Weil wrote a Letter to a Priest. This letter was published as a book in 1951. Many of the questions raised by Weil during the war would be raised again a couple of years later during the Second Vatican Council. After the war, Couturier returned to France and worked with the artists Henri Matisse and Le Corbusier. In 1951, he organised the first Salon Art Sacré, an annual exhibition aimed to revitalise sacred meaning in art.
Conclusion
Simone Weil’s encounter with the Dominicans is a story of intellectual courage and the power and impact of honest dialogue. Today, her thinking functions as a critical dialogue partner in my work as a Dominican and professor of Christian Philosophy at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam.
Picture Simone Weil: WikiCommons