Affliction

11/11/04

TH 291

Simone Weil

• late 1930s, early 1940s
• worker affliction – especially factor workers before legislation
• raised as secular Jew, came under influence of a Catholic priest
• became a neo-platonic Roman Catholic but would not receive baptism
• rumor of being baptized on death bed
• ate only minimal rations available to those in the army
• eventually starved herself death in act of solidarity with the afflicted

“The Love of God and Afflicted” - Themes

• affliction destroys the soul unless one can dwell in God’s love
• the only way to preserve one’s soul is for those flung at the foot of the cross in affliction to retain the power to love God hanging there where the agony of affliction and love is made known
• the ability to love God in affliction is the defeat of the dehumanization of affliction, and hence, the dignity

Three Things Mentioned in the Beginning

• affliction
• suffering
• physical pain – not an example of suffering, simply physical pain

Affliction is different from pain and suffering

• you cannot ignore affliction but you can ignore physical pain
• affliction leaves a trace on the soul
• affliction includes a spiritual (or psychological) impact on the person
• uproots identity – changes who you are

Social degradation

• must be present to warrant a definition of affliction
• different people will be afflicted by one thing while another person may not be afflicted at all

Precision with use of words – key to philosophical thinking

• untrained mind groups entities in the same category – “fuzzy thinkinkg”
• example terms

1. suffering
2. affliction
3. humiliation
4. physical pain

Question: Theoretically, should a Christian never be afflicted since they should not be impacted by the world (social degradation)?

Ability to fight affliction

• identification with Christ on the cross
• provides the ability to combat affliction
• JL – experience peace when they don’t want necessarily want to experience peace
• overall concern, people who do not have the experiences to help them deal with affliction
• Christians, who are formed, have the choice of holding onto the cross, even if it has destroyed the person’s ability to love

Impacts

• removes the ability to love
• unable to love God because God seems to be absent
• turn head and look to the cross

Question: Poverty

• material impoverishment, spiritual impoverishment

1960s

• culture of poverty
• poverty alone is not the issue
• the culture of expectation and way of life that is build around poverty

Affliction is Ridiculous p. 175

• there is no redeeming feature
• there is no ‘plan’