The Mouth of a Labyrinth: Beauty’s Invitation to a New Violence

Abstract

I. Introduction In 1955, Simone Petrement interviewed Abbe de Naurois, chaplain for Free French forces, who visited Simone Weil while she was in Middlesex Hospital in London in spring of 1943. Of few memories he recounted of his conversations with Weil, thorough bewilderment was foremost: What confusion...between principal propositions and subordinate or interpolated clauses, what continuous swerves and strayings...the acrobatics of a squirrel in a revolving cage! (1) For Weil's readers de Naurois's bewilderment is often shared, as for Weil truth hit upon contradiction only to be reconciled in mystery. Perhaps one of greatest contradictions in Weil's writings--and even in her life--was role of In Intimations of Christianity Among Ancient Greeks, we see several lines from Aeschylus quoted: first, from Agamemnon, Weil writes, gods who sit at celestial helm, grace comes violently; (2) then, from Suppliants, we read, Zeus strikes down ruined mortals from their hopes lofty as towers but he arms himself with no violence. (3) While on one level contradictory, Weil argues that in a much deeper way both of these passages speak truly of man's relationship with God. Grace comes violently, Weil affirms, but ultimately no violence can be predicated of divine. The nuance of Weil's understanding of God's violence contributes to her ambivalence toward Old Testament, in which God is at times depicted as a mere master to his slaves. (4) The books of Old Testament she deems most troubling recount acts of war and genocide perpetrated by Israel and ordered by God; this attribution of violence to God was to Weil's mind the greatest mistake possible to make with regard to him, (5) and Weil saw in it roots of a new order ultimately predicated upon violence of collectivism. At same time, Weil's own discussion of God's activity within moral agent often includes attributions of violence to God, especially in her consideration of beauty, through which divine is said to enter, devour, digest and kill its often unsuspecting victims. In this article, will explore concept of violence in Weil's writings, discuss in part some of her concerns regarding violence of God in Old Testament, and ultimately show how her understanding of beauty points to establishment of a new violence through which man becomes a new sacrifice to God. Finally, will conclude by distinguishing God's violence from collective II. Israel's Violence as Collective Violence From excommunicated Marcion of early Church to canonized St. Thomas Aquinas, numerous theologians and biblical scholars have acknowledged differences between Old and New Testaments with respect to how God reveals himself to man. Traditionally, means of reconciliation is achieved by transposing biblical narrative into context of mankind's moral maturation. Aquinas, for instance, implies that in Old Testament God enforces law by temporal threats and promises to initially encourage practice of virtue as if among children. Thus, Aquinas proposes, while the New Law is not distinct from Old Law: because they both have same end, namely, man's subjection to God ... New Law is distinct from Old Law: because Old Law is like a pedagogue of children ... whereas New Law is law of perfection. (6) Though of itself insufficient, Old Law is seen as prefiguring New Law, and precepts of Old Law that fall beyond purview of natural law are deemed provisional, but are nonetheless upheld as rational and illuminative. The contrast with Weil's analysis could scarcely be greater. In a letter to historian of religion Deodat Roche, she writes: I have never been able to understand how it is possible for a reasonable mind to regard Jehovah of Bible and Father who is invoked in Gospel as one and same being. …