ABSTRACT

Gravity and Grace was the first ever publication by the remarkable thinker and activist, Simone Weil. In it Gustave Thibon, the farmer to whom she had entrusted her notebooks before her untimely death, compiled in one remarkable volume a compendium of her writings that have become a source of spiritual guidance and wisdom for countless individuals. On the fiftieth anniversary of the first English edition - by Routledge & Kegan Paul in 1952 - this Routledge Classics edition offers English readers the complete text of this landmark work for the first time ever, by incorporating a specially commissioned translation of the controversial chapter on Israel. Also previously untranslated is Gustave Thibon's postscript of 1990, which reminds us how privileged we are to be able to read a work which offers each reader such 'light for the spirit and nourishment for the soul'. This is a book that no one with a serious interest in the spiritual life can afford to be without.

chapter |4 pages

GRAVITY AND GRACE

chapter |5 pages

VOID AND COMPENSATION

part |2 pages

TO ACCEPT THE VOID

chapter |4 pages

DETACHMENT

chapter |3 pages

IMAGINATION WHICH FILLS THE VOID

chapter |3 pages

RENUNCIATION OF TIME

chapter |4 pages

TO DESIRE WITHOUT AN OBJECT

chapter |6 pages

THE SELF

chapter |8 pages

DECREATION

chapter |3 pages

SELF-EFFACEMENT

chapter |8 pages

NECESSITY AND OBEDIENCE

chapter |9 pages

ILLUSIONS

part |2 pages

Idolatry 62 69

chapter |7 pages

LOVE

chapter |11 pages

EVIL

chapter |5 pages

Affliction

part |2 pages

VIOLENCE

chapter |5 pages

THE CROSS

part |2 pages

BALANCE AND LEVER

chapter |4 pages

THE IMPOSSIBLE

chapter |6 pages

CONTRADICTION

part |2 pages

CHANCE

chapter |5 pages

HE WHOM WE MUST LOVE IS ABSENT

part |2 pages

Atheism as a Purification

chapter |7 pages

Attention and Will 123

chapter |5 pages

TRAINING

chapter |6 pages

Intelligence and Grace 134

chapter |3 pages

READINGS

chapter |3 pages

THE RING OF GYGES

chapter |5 pages

MEANING OF THE UNIVERSE

chapter |3 pages

METAXU

chapter |4 pages

Beauty 152

chapter |3 pages

ALGEBRA

chapter |4 pages

The Social Imprint 159

chapter |5 pages

ISRAEL

chapter |6 pages

The Great Beast 170

chapter |8 pages

SOCIAL HARMONY

chapter |4 pages

THE MYSTICISM OF WORK

chapter |3 pages

Postscript, Fifty Years Later