Jacques Maritain: Reviving Aquinas for the Modern World
Jacques Maritain (18 November 1882 – 28 April 1973) was a French Catholic philosopher and theologian. He authored more than 60 books, revived the study of Thomas Aquinas for modern times, and played a central role in the development and drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Early Life and Education
Maritain was born in Paris on 18 November 1882, the son of Paul Maritain, a lawyer, and Geneviève Favre, daughter of philosopher and educator Julie Favre and statesman Jules Favre. He was raised in a liberal Protestant household and attended the Lycée Henri-IV before studying natural sciences—chemistry, biology, and physics—at the Sorbonne.
At the Sorbonne, Maritain met Raïssa Oumançoff, a Russian Jewish émigré, whom he married in 1904. They made a private vow to abstain from sex. Raïssa, a poet and mystic, became his intellectual partner. Her sister Vera lived with them throughout their marriage. Both Jacques and Raïssa grew dissatisfied with scientism, which they felt could not address life’s deeper existential questions. In 1901, they resolved to commit suicide together if they could not find meaning within a year. They were saved from this when, at Charles Péguy’s urging, they attended Henri Bergson’s lectures at the Collège de France. Bergson’s critique of scientism restored their sense of purpose and instilled in them “the sense of the absolute.” Through Léon Bloy’s influence, they converted to Catholicism in 1906.
In fall 1907, the Maritains moved to Heidelberg, where Jacques studied biology under Hans Driesch. During Raïssa’s illness there, their spiritual advisor, Dominican friar Humbert Clérissac, introduced her to Thomas Aquinas’s writings. She read them eagerly and urged her husband to do the same. Maritain found in Aquinas ideas he had long held intuitively. Beginning in 1912, Maritain taught at the Collège Stanislas, later moving to the Institut Catholique de Paris. For the 1916–1917 academic year, he taught at the Petit Séminaire de Versailles. In 1925, he founded the journal Le Roseau d’Or with Jean Cocteau. In 1930, Maritain and Étienne Gilson received honorary doctorates in philosophy from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum.
Career and Achievements
Maritain’s philosophical foundation rested on Aristotle, Aquinas, and Thomistic commentators, particularly John of St. Thomas. His philosophy drew on evidence from the senses and understanding of first principles. He defended philosophy as a science and promoted it as the “queen of sciences.” In 1910, he completed his first contribution to modern philosophy, a 28-page article titled “Reason and Modern Science.”
From 1933 onward, Maritain lectured widely in North America. He gave his first North American lectures in Toronto at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in 1933, and subsequently taught at Columbia University, the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, the University of Notre Dame, and Princeton University. From 1945 to 1948, he served as French ambassador to the Holy See. He returned to Princeton University afterward. In 1952, he delivered the inaugural A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts. Four years later, he became professor emeritus.
Raïssa Maritain died in 1960. Jacques later published her journal as “Raïssa’s Journal.” For several years, he served as an honorary chairman of the Congress for Cultural Freedom and appeared as a keynote speaker at its 1960 Berlin conference. From 1961, Maritain lived with the Little Brothers of Jesus in Toulouse, France. He had influenced the order since its foundation in 1933 and became a Little Brother himself in 1970. He was also an oblate for the Order of Saint Benedict.
Notable Events and Milestones
Maritain’s intellectual trajectory was marked by his 1906 conversion to Catholicism and his subsequent discovery of Thomas Aquinas in 1907–1908. His work spanned aesthetics, political theory, philosophy of science, metaphysics, education, liturgy, and ecclesiology. He was instrumental in the development and drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Pope Paul VI, his long-time friend and mentor, presented his “Message to Men of Thought and of Science” at the close of Vatican II to Maritain. The same pope seriously considered making him a lay cardinal, but Maritain declined the honor.
Awards and Honors
In 1930, Maritain received an honorary doctorate in philosophy from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, shared with Étienne Gilson. In 1952, he was selected to deliver the inaugural A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts at Princeton University.
Additional Resources
Jacques and Raïssa Maritain are buried in the cemetery of Kolbsheim, a village in Alsace where they spent many summers at the estate of friends Antoinette and Alexander Grunelius. Readers seeking deeper insight into Maritain’s life, philosophy, and influence on twentieth-century Catholic thought can find extensive biographical and scholarly resources through Wikipedia and academic archives devoted to medieval and modern philosophy.
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