Living with War,Fanaticism and the Pragmatic

Simone Weil (1909–43) and Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929) both responded to the First World War as if it were confirmation of a philosophical, political and religious crisis. This essay shows how much their analysis of the causes and nature of warfare had in common, though Weil increasingly assimilated this analysis to a fiercely anti-Judaic Christianity, while Rosenzweig believed that Jews and other Europeans had to reappropriate their Hebraic roots. Whereas the anti-political, semipacifist agenda of both writers has been taken as evidence of a highly personal eccentricity, the similarities highlighted by this comparison suggest they were more responsive to broader intellectual currents than has been commonly assumed.