Jacques Maritain: A Neo-Thomist Classic

Abstract

Although in many respects the postconciliar development of Catholic thought has passed by Jacques Maritain, the questions which he raised in epistemology and metaphysics retain their relevance for the Catholic theologian. His epistemology and metaphysics still have a word to say, for example, in the current discussion over the scientific method of Catholic theology, and it would be imprudent to ignore the pertinence of his philosophy of knowledge and being to the current debate about the relation of Catholic theology to philosophy and the empirical sciences. With the exception of Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthasar, no Catholic systematic theologian in this century has been able to present a program for the intellectual unification of Christian experience which can match Maritain's speculative synthesis in its range, depth, consistency, and sophistication. While Rahner and von Balthasar have been guided in their speculative unification of Christian experience by the ascetic and mystical world view of St. Ignatius Loyola, the religious source of unity in Maritain's Christian humanism was his deeply lived commitment to the spiritual theology of the Order of Preachers. Both Jesuit and Dominican spirituality are respected by the Catholic church as vital and orthodox religious traditions. Nevertheless, there are significant differences between the two spiritualities, and these differences have given a distinctive stamp to the theology, the philosophy, and the humanism of the two religious orders. Furthermore, Hans Urs von Balthasar's theological inspiration comes from the church fathers, and his theology of culture is characterized by a pronounced distrust of Neo-Thomist philosophy as a speculative unifier of Christian experience.1 Karl Rahner is a transcen-