“HEROISM ON AN EMPTY STOMACH”: Weil and Hillesum on Love and Happiness Amid the Holocaust1

ABSTRACT I do four things in this essay: (1) briefly rehearse the biographies of Simone Weil and Etty Hillesum, (2) outline and compare some of the key themes in their lives and works, noting interesting (and also troubling) similarities between them, as well as salient differences, (3) use their ex...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of religious ethics 2012-03, Vol.40 (1), p.72-98
Main Author: Jackson, Timothy P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
blessedness
Ethics
Happiness
Hillesum, Etty (1914-1943)
Holocaust
love
Morality
Religion
self‐sacrifice
Weil, Simone
writing
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Summary:ABSTRACT I do four things in this essay: (1) briefly rehearse the biographies of Simone Weil and Etty Hillesum, (2) outline and compare some of the key themes in their lives and works, noting interesting (and also troubling) similarities between them, as well as salient differences, (3) use their examples as lenses through which to look at contemporary attitudes toward altruism vs. self‐interest, freedom vs. necessity, eating vs. fasting, and acting vs. writing, and (4) highlight both their strengths and their weaknesses as religious witnesses to the truth. An overarching issue throughout the essay is the relation between the soul and the body, but I am especially concerned with the relation between self‐sacrifice and self‐love—also known as agape and temporal happiness—when confronted by radical evil. When allowed to correct one another, Weil and Hillesum show us, I believe, how Christian agapism can refuse both hatred and false security, even in an era of terrorism and torture.
ISSN:0384-9694
1467-9795
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9795.2011.00509.x