Stu Jesson is, in theory, coming to the end of a PhD in Philosophical Theology at Nottingham University, which focuses on ways of making sense of forgiveness.

Simone Weil and the search for undivided attention

'To think on God, to love God, is nothing else than a certain way of thinking on the world.'

Simone Weil is one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century, and the notebooks that she kept towards the end of her short life contain some extraordinary insights; profound, paradoxical and sometimes very disturbing. Above all, Weil wanted a way of thinking about God that led her back to the world, a way of giving attention to God that was at the same time a way of giving attention to the beauty and suffering of the world. 

This session explores Simone Weil's religious writings with this in mind, asking how we are to obey the two great commandments of the Christian faith - love of God, love of neighbour - without our attention becoming divided between the two in the process.