Theology as an Intellectual Vocation: Some Thoughts on the Theo-logical Vision of Simone Weil*

Abstract

Abstract The French philosopher Simone Weil always understood her privileged access to the intellectual world as a ‘terrible’ responsibility, and at the same time as a way opened for the service she was called to provide to society, particularly to the oppressed and the unfortunate in its midst. Her life, experience and reflection are the content of this article. The experience and reflection of Weil can be understood as theo-logy, as it is and wants to be a permanent search and encounter with truth, which at a certain point of her life she will identify with the God of Jesus Christ. The consequences of this ‘theo-logy’ for the public space generate a true ‘fundamental public theology’, especially in the domain of intelligence and culture. Weil’s thought can be considered an important contribution for what we understand today, dynamically, as ‘public theology’; that is, a presence of faith in the world of science and thinking.