Simone Kotva

Simone Weil

July 14, 2026 Emmanuel Gabellieri, Simone Kotva

Simone Weil belongs to the apophatic tradition but holds an original position, having developed key themes after a mystical experience at age 29. She proposes "decreation" (décréation), originating from meditation on Christ's kenosis (Ph. 2:7) and how to imitate it. Her concept of attention (l'attention) involves a "negative effort" of "suspension of thought," more like waiting (l'attente) than willing. Weil's apophaticism is a method of stripping away obstacles to knowing God and seeing things "as they really are," rather than refining the idea of God through negations. She drew inspiration from Daoist philosophy, Hindu theology, and Zen Buddhism, while remaining indebted to Catholic mystical understandings of nothingness, especially John of the Cross.