Caritas and hopelessness in Hannah Arendt’s and Simone Weil’s interpretations of Saint Augustine

Simone Weil and Hannah Arendt, two philosophers who wrote extensively about fascism, religion and totalitarianism, turn to Saint Augustine to understand the relationship between Caritas and politics. They understand Caritas as an emblem of communal relationships that originate in the experience of affliction and harbour it within them. While Weil supports this type of political community as egalitarian and just, Arendt demonstrates that its origin in the experience of affliction harbours a significant danger of oppression once it is presented into the public realm. Considering the significant exposure and experience of affliction in our times, coupled with public intellectuals calling for political movements to include this experience within them, this comparison offers a chance to think what the modalities of affliction politics or political caritas could be.