414 - Simone Weil: An Introduction to Her Thought & An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion

Simone Weil: An Introduction to Her Thought
By John Hellman
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1984. 111 pp. $6.95.

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion
By William J. Abraham
Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1985. 258 pp. $17.95.

John Hellman's Simone Weil is one of the best introductions to the thought of Simone Weil available. Its value is that it does not attempt to be introductory by treating all the issues on which Weil wrote or even by giving a detailed explication of texts. Rather, Hellman, professor of history at McGill University, centers his discussion on Weil's unique approach to social problems, namely her concern for workers as people. With this approach, he is able to make sense of a great deal that she wrote, even on seemingly unrelated issues. Thus, rather than beginning in her Christian thought, he makes it the capstone to her deeply felt opposition to the dehumanizing social structures of her time. He also does a good job of setting Weil within her own historical French context. Hellman's method does not allow treating certain fundamental ideas of Weil's (such as affliction) at the depth at which they contribute to her thought. It does, nevertheless, put the reader in a position to appreciate them. Thus, this book serves as a true introduction.

William Abraham's An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion is a quite different sort of introduction. In its twenty chapters, it covers more than the normal range of subjects found in comparable introductions. The book is divided into two parts. The first deals with the issue of the justification of religious belief. This discussion is valuable in that it reflects contemporary literature quite well and therefore gives the reader a good sense of what is actually being done in the field. In this part some discussions are too summary and do not always faithfully reflect what philosophers of reli-

415 - Simone Weil: An Introduction to Her Thought & An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion

gion are doing, for example, the proofs of God's existence which Abraham dismisses rather quickly. His discussion of Richard Swinburne's position is at times also open to questions of interpretation. The second half of the book treats a number of different topics raised by the philosophy of religion, including, beyond the standard issues of miracles, immortality etc, discussions of revelation, history, science, world religions, and Marxism as they affect philosophy of religion. Some of these discussions are quite helpful in broadening our awareness of all that is involved in the field.

Eric O. Springsted
Illinois College
Jacksonville, Ill.