Simone Weil's Political Theology |
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Authors: | Inese Radzins |
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Affiliation: | 1. Pacific School of Religion, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, USAiradzins@psr.edu |
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Abstract: | This article suggests that Simone Weil's political theology is characterized by the idea of labor and the event of laboring. I begin by arguing that her thinking is shaped by a materialist reading of Christianity that employs Marx's concepts — labor, capital and alienation — to examine the political implications of three theological ideas, fall, slavery and sin. Next, I suggest that although laboring should be understood as a creative endeavor, Weil argues that it is always conditioned and constrained by a force she terms social matter. This constraint produces what Marx called alienation and Weil will refer to as enslavement (and even sin). Finally, I contend that Weil's idea of labor — and its call for a minimization of constraint — provides a counter-force to social matter. I conclude by suggesting that Weil's labor provides a different way of conceptualizing not just the political subject, but political theology itself. |
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Keywords: | Simone Weil political theology Marx labor materialism Christianity religion |
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