Threading the Needle: Jacques Maritain’s Defense of a Christian and Liberal Democracy

Abstract

Some of the key oppositions tearing apart American public life in the early 21st century are related to issues explored in the mid-twentieth century political philosophy of Jacques Maritain. Supporters of liberal democracy, then and now, insist that it is a political system that privatizes religion and all concepts of a common good. Supporters of an integralist alternative demand official state support for religion as the vision underlying political goals. And, of course, arrayed against both are authoritarian movements that threaten democracy altogether. In this context, Maritain’s nuanced political philosophy is far from dated. He thoughtfully defends liberal democracy’s protection of human rights, while also demonstrating that democracy is strengthened by a Catholic vision of the ultimate human good. His political wisdom provides a way through our current impasses and points to a path that will support the survival of this fragile experiment in democracy and the even more fragile hope that democratic processes could be a means to create a more just world.