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Essay on Philosophy of Nature by Jacques Maritain
Jacques Maritain, French philosopher and intellectual, played a crucial role in the revival of Thomistic philosophy early in the twentieth century, as well as in reconciling the Catholic church and democratic institutions. Today conservatives commonly regard Maritain as a model of a docile Catholic intellectual. But his fifty-year correspondence with Abbe Charles Journet--Swiss theologian, consultant at Vatican II, and eventually, cardinal of the church--tells a more interesting and complex story. There are several reasons for dwelling on the life of Jacques Maritain.
To begin, to weave a narrative, as McInerny does, of the connection between Maritain's life and thought is to gain a deeper understanding of that thought. Moreover, Maritain's thought evolved; and regardless of whether one prefers the earlier Maritain or the later Maritain, we gain a better understanding of that evolution and therefore in an important sense what the mature Maritain position is when we see what events occasioned the important transitions in his thought.
Given the coherent narrative that McInerny provides, it would be difficult to dismiss the later thought. Maritain's life and the evolution of his thinking was not a purely personal journey; it reflected important intellectual and social issues of that period not only for the discipline of philosophy in general but for Catholic thought in particular.A fierce intellectual battle is presently being fought over the meaning of Maritain's work and most especially its political implications. This is not merely a matter of trying to claim his mantle. Nor is it simply a reflection of conflicting tendencies in his views, although those conflicts are clearly visible. It is rather a battle over what it means to be a Catholic intellectual. This battle, again, is not a simple reflection of conflicting political agendas; rather, it reflects inherent tensions within the Catholic intellectual inheritance..................
