earticle

영어

Simone Weil (1909-1943), whose life is marked by hunger, suffering, and social praxis in a tumultuous time, is regarded as a great modern mystic in history of Christian spirituality. Although she did not want to belong to any institutionalize church, she was a mystic, experiencing God in an immediately way. She was striving for God, actively engaged in social, political issues in her time. In the mid-1930s Weil became increasingly drawn to Christianity but refused baptism into the Christian Church. However, she finally converted from Judaism to Christianity in 19131. As her faith dawned, Weil had strongly mystic experiences several times. She stayed outside of any church, but her passionate need to share the sufferings of others led her to fight with the anarchists in the Spanish Civil War and to work as a laborer. She ultimately died in England at the age of 34 by refusing to eat more than the rations Hitler allotted to her countrymen in occupied France. The extraordinary life of Simone Weil gave us a strong impression of a saint because she practiced the suffering way of Jesus Christ in her own life. Above of all, she shows us a way of encountering God in both her internal life and the suffering world, a spirituality balanced between personal prayer, contemplation, and social praxis. In addition, her spiritual journey teaches us the meaning of faith, prayer, mysticism, ritual, and church. Thus, it seems obvious that her spirituality can help us reflect ourself as Christians and formulate a spirituality of genuine prayer and action in the context of Korean churches. In this regard, it is timely significant to theologically analyze her spiritual autobiography to gain an understanding of spirituality from a new perspective in this changing world. In this article, I will explore her spirituality, focusing on her spiritual and theological writings collected in Waiting for God. In particular, I will fucus on her spiritual journey, centering on several turning points. I will first explicate the significance of her spiritual autobiography as a form of autobiography. Then, I will discuss her thought on theological themes such as God, Christ, mystical experience, truth, beauty, suffering, and Christianity. Last, I will critique some of her thought in order to develop a balanced spirituality between self and others, personal contemplation and social praxis in the context of the Korean church.