Reclaiming a Life-Affirming Christian Asceticism: Simone Weil’s Call to Attention

This essay argues that Simone Weil’s writings offer a powerful resource for reclaiming a life-affirming Christian asceticism. It explores three insights of particular relevance in face of the contemporary culture of instant gratification: a lucid view of human frailty and of the seduction of power; an emphasis on the life-giving nature of distance and self-restraint; and the development of the central concept of attention . Weil’s asceticism of attention, in this way, far from confirming the portrayal of Christian asceticism as a rejection of the body and the world, serves an embodied and reflective presence to the world and others.