Thursday, May 01, 2014

An interview with a 20th-century free thinker, Gustave Thibon (1903-2001)


Following up the post on "Liturgical counter-revolution: the 'hushed' case of Fr. Calmel" (Musings, April 28, 2014), here is an interview with a very different sort of man, Gustave Thibon (1903-2001), a French philosopher, poet, and free thinker who, during the Second World War, hosted Simone Weil at his farm and later published her work, La Pesanteur et la grâce (Gravity and Grace) in 1947.

Luc Adrian, "Gustave Thibon en confidences" Part I, Part II (Famille Chrétienne, July 7, 1993)

His favorite saints? St. John of the Cross and St. Therese of Lisieux. Among many other things in this lively intereview, he declares: "I'm in love with Christ in agony, the Man of Sorrows, God become infinitely small, God forsaken of God. If I were a religious, I would have chosen the name Brother X of Gethsemane."

One learns about the present by studying the past.

[Hat tip to Sir A.S.]

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