Chapter Six: The Survival of Tradition

Abstract

This chapter discusses how the Thomistic philosophy survives, looking into the lives of Desiré Joseph Mercier and Jacques Maritain, and the doctrine of Pope John Paul II. As a scholar, Mercier was strongly committed to the idea that all of the sciences could work together with philosophy to form a unified, rational whole. His heroic stand against the Germans during the First World War made him an international celebrity. Leo's defense, like Mercier's, was based on natural right and justice. In 1882, Jacques Maritain was born in Paris. Maritain was perhaps one of the strongest Catholic defenders of democracy in his day. He was convinced that this form of government was best suited to protect the dignity of the human person. The strongest defender of natural law since Leo XIII was Pope John Paul II. His most comprehensive statements appeared in the 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor.