In this session, we will discuss forms of uprootedness in rural life. Simone Weil discusses ways of ‘rerooting’ the French peasantry of the 1930s, from Christian moral education to the restoration of the “spiritual dignity of work” to the revival of French Nationalism. Weil’s project is ambitious: she is attempting nothing less than a synthesis of socialist, Christian, and nationalist ethical thought. Can work bear the spiritual weight that Weil places on it? What sort of Christian moral education is acceptable to “root” citizens of a nominally secular country? To what extent does Weil’s synthesis succeed, if at all?

On Thursday, March 6, at 12:30 PM, join us for a lunch conversation with Amogha Sahu (Columbia) about Weil’s synthesis of spiritual and political thought. We will read 59–127 of The Need for Roots.