An accessible translation of the biography of noted French philosopher Jacques Maritain and his wife Raïssa

Jacques Maritain (1882-1973) was a Neo-Thomist philosopher who taught in France and the United States and was French Ambassador to the Vatican from 1945-48. A Protestant who became a Roman Catholic through association with Leon Bloy, he devoted himself to the study of Thomism and its application to all aspects of modern life and urged Christian involvement in secular affairs. An Introduction to Philosophy is perhaps the most well-known and enduring of all Maritain's many books. It offers a clear and highly readable introduction to the philosophies of both Aristotle and St Thomas Aquinas.

The author, a modern Catholic writer-philosopher, sets forth his views on Christian education.

At eighty-five, Jacques Maritain, the most distinguished Catholic philosopher of the twentieth century, has written what he offers as his last book, and it turns out to be a shocker. The peasant, as Maritain calls himself in the title, is a man who calls a spade a spade; and a storm of controversy descended immediately on the book's publication in France, as both Right and Left reeled from the force of Maritain's criticism.The Peasant of the Garonne is a sharp attack on the new philosophy, hoping to cool off the fever for change that Maritain believes is imperiling the church's traditional spirituality and even the substance of doctrine. There is sardonic humor in his treatment of Teilhardians, phenomenologists, existentialists, new-style biblical critics, and clerical Freudians, but Maritain is deeply serious in warning that their capitulation to fashioniable trends represents a kind of kneeling before the world.

A biography of the eminent Catholic philosopher.

"Of time-transcending value, this book is probably the most succinct and clearest statement of Thomistic political theory available to the English-language reader. Written during his exile from war-torn Europe, Man and the State is the fruit of Maritain's considerable learning as well as his reflections on his positive American experience and on the failure of regimes he closely encountered on the Continent."--Jude P. Dougherty, The Catholic University of America "The lectures that were the basis for Man and the State were delivered at the University of Chicago at a time when Maritain was still in the first enthusiasm of his participation in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He devotes particular attention to the concept of rights, since, historically, rights theories were fashioned to supplant the natural law theory to which Maritain as a Thomist gives his allegiance. Maritain provides an ingenious and profound theory as to how natural law and natural rights can be complementary. For this reason alone it remains a fundamental contribution to political philosophy, but it is filled with other gems as well. Was Maritain too optimistic in his appraisal of modernity? Or have we unjustly lost the optimism that was his? Man and the State is an invitation to rethink the way we pose the basic questions of political philosophy."--Ralph McInerny, Jacques Maritain Center, University of Notre Dame ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jacques Maritain (1882-1973), distinguished French Catholic philosopher and writer, was the author of more than fifty books. A preeminent interpreter of the thought of Thomas Aquinas, Maritain was a professor of philosophy at the Institut Catholique de Paris, Columbia University, and Princeton University. He served as French Ambassador to the Vatican from 1945 to 1948. CONTENTS 1. The People and the State 2. The Concept of Sovereignty 3. The Problem of Means 4. The Rights of Man 5. The Democratic Charter 6. Church and State 7. The Problem of World Government

In a substantial philosophical work, Jacques Maritain designated Christianity as the sole full humanism. Defender of Catholic orthodoxy, he contributed to the renaissance of Thomism, which had a great influence on the philosophical renewal that took place between the two wars.

In Sacred Dread, Brenna Moore examines the life and writings of Raïssa Maritain (1883-1960), one of the few women to contribute to this French Catholic revival movement.

Authored by Jacques and Raissa Maritain, Prayer and Intelligence is a practical book about mental prayer and how to pray. It is also a book about the intellectual life. How does our intellectual search for God influence our life of prayer and how does the discipline of a life of prayer act as the necessary grounding for a profound and sustained search for the truth? In the pages of this book, philosophy and the spiritual life intertwine and strengthen each other. Accompanying Prayer and Intelligence are two essays, Liturgy and Contemplation, also written by Jacques and Raissa together, and Notes on the Lord's Prayer, written by Raissa. The former is a study of how the Church's liturgy prepares for our union with God by contemplation of love. The latter is a powerful meditation on the great gift of the prayer of Christ himself, "the prayer that is universally true and needed." All three of the works contained in this volume are written by friends, for friends, seeking to know and love God. If we wish to grow in our spiritual life, this book serves as a great guide."

A group of essays prepared for publication by Maritain in the year before his death. The first series of articles consists of 10 philosophical essays, while second is made up of mainly theological articles. A meditation closes the volume.