New York, été 1942. Peu après la déclaration de la guerre, les Maritain ont quitté la France et se sont réfugiés aux Etats - Unis. Tout en poursuivant son oeuvre littéraire, Jacques donne des cours et des conférences à travers le pays. Raïssa publie Les grandes amitiés et achève la rédaction de ses souvenirs, souvent interrompue par la maladie et les souffrances qui l'accablent. L'arrachement à leur pays, le désastre en Europe et le sort des Juifs ne cessent de (...) peser sur le coeur et les pensées du couple. C'est dans ce contexte troublé que, le 22 août 1942, les Maritain reçoivent la lettre d'une inconnue. Celle qui leur écrit pour la première fois vient de lire Les grandes amitiés. C'est une Américaine de quarante-trois ans, écrivain, poète, dont la vie sera désormais liée à la leur. (shrink)

Tout ce qui est dans l'oeuvre de Jacques, nous l'avons d'abord vécu à l'état de difficulté vitale et d'expérience, - les questions de l'art et de la morale, de la philosophie, de la foi, de la prière, de la contemplation. Cela nous a d'abord été donné à vivre, à chacun selon sa nature et la grâce de Dieu », notait Raïssa en 1934. Cette correspondance confirme le propos, qui nous fait pénétrer dans « l'amour fou » de deux vies données (...) l'une à l'autre, et la trame quotidienne de leur fécondité de pensée et de « grandes amitiés ».Leur conversion en 1906 scelle la vocation d'un couple venu déjà un peu d'ailleurs : lui, 18 ans, romantique, révolutionnaire et dreyfusard en diable, en rupture avec les élites républicaines laïques dont il est issu ; elle, 17 ans, comme sortie d'une peinture de Chagall, juive et slave en quête à la Sorbonne d'une nouvelle patrie spirituelle. Les premiers regards portés sur eux discernent déjà leur promesse : « Je les trouve absolument dignes l'un de l'autre ; ce sont même de si beaux types d'humanité qu'il faut se féliciter de les voir se rechercher. On ne trouve pas si souvent de couple bien assorti ; celui-là me paraît devoir donner un exemple lumineux. »Ils s'écrivent abondamment dès que les aléas de la vie les séparent et ce premier tome les suit dans la découverte d'eux-mêmes. Dans la discontinuité des circonstances, leur chemin métaphysique et mystique progresse, tandis que se révèle, derrière chaque ouvrage, chaque combat, chaque accompagnement spirituel, le secret de leur rayonnement : au fil de ces 712 lettres, c'est d'abord une histoire d'amour, dans un respect tendre et sacré de la singularité de l'autre. (shrink)

Dans une perspective néo-thomiste, Jacques Maritain considère qu’un artiste est religieux non par les thèmes qu’il choisit ou la foi qu’il professe, mais lorsqu’il saisit les formes dans les choses et les reconstruit selon la nécessité de sa « subjectivité créatrice ». C’est ainsi que Maritain a pu reconnaître en Chagall le type même de l’artiste religieux. S’il n’a jamais essayé de « christianiser » le peintre, il n’en a peut-être pas été de même avec Raïssa Maritain, (...) surtout lorsque Chagall, à partir de 1938, peint ses grandes crucifixions. Tous deux cependant s’accordent à reléguer l’art « sacré » contemporain, c’est-à-dire, selon eux, l’art présent dans les lieux de culte, au bas d’une assez stricte hiérarchie esthétique. En cela, ils s’accordent avec le dominicain M.-A. Couturier et l’équipe de la revue L’Art Sacré. (shrink)

L'aventure de Jacques et Raîssa Maritain constitue un parcours unique par son ampleur et son rayonnement. Centre de gravité de la vie spirituelle et littéraire pendant l'entre-deux-guerres, point de ralliement des générations perdues et refuge des poètes maudits, le couple tissa autour de lui le réseau d'influence le plus riche et foisonnant de l'histoire de ce siècle. Disciples de Bergson et de Léon Bloy, confidents de François Mauriac, de julien Green et de Jean Cocteau, amis de Péguy, de Mounier (...) et de Paul VI, et jetant entre les milieux littéraires, artistiques et catholiques d'invisibles passerelles, Jacques et Raïssa Maritain menèrent dans le même temps une expérience de vie spirituelle fascinante. Convertis à vingt ans, ils se firent tous deux messagers de Dieu sur les routes du monde, mendiants du Ciel au nom d'un nouvel humanisme, et ils s'engagèrent ensemble dans les combats essentiels de leur temps pour faire prévaloir en tous lieux la primauté du spirituel. On connaît l'œuvre philosophique considérable laissée par Jacques Maritain, qui garde une audience internationale. Mais cette première biographie, qui s'appuie entre autre sur une importante correspondance inédite, révèle la trame même d'une réflexion qui touche aux multiples domaine de la connaissance : une destinée d'errance et d'exil, de grandes amitiés et de combats souvent âpres contre l'injustice et les dérives du monde moderne, notamment celles de l'Eglise. C'est aussi la face invisible et secrète de la vie d'un couple qui nous est ici dévoilée. Unis par un amour fou et liés par un vœu de chasteté, les Maritainlivrèrent leur existence à Dieu sans partage, au prix pour Raïssa de "la plus dure mort à soi-même" et, pour tous les deux, d'une bouleversante solitude. (shrink)

A lost childhood -- The stranger -- Confidence in the unknown -- Violence and grace -- A little bridge thrown across the abyss -- Raïssa's guests -- God or Jean Cocteau? -- The sound of hidden springs -- Return from Rome -- The darkest part of ourselves -- The fullness of the day -- Poor means -- A Catholic in the resistance -- The archipelago on the sea -- The memory of the angels.

Both Jacques and Raïssa Maritain produced large and diverse bodies of writing, and their creative lives spanned decades and encompassed the most turbulent periods of the twentieth century. Scholarly engagement with their work continues to reap new insights, and that includes engagement with the writings produced in the earlier portions of their respective careers. Those earlier portions were themselves remarkably productive, and issued not only in important writings but also in profoundly influential professional and personal relationships nurtured and developed (...) with a truly diverse array of scholars, clergy, and artists, including such figures as Henri Bergson, Leon Bloy, Ernest Psichari, and Georges Rouault. This new anthology of essays manages both to interact with the biographies and writings of the Maritains themselves (and to a degree their close early associates) and also to contribute to novel Thomistic reflection on themes from their early careers, among them war, suffering, politics, art, intuition, and foundational issues in moral theology. The essays are historically informed yet address perennial issues of vital significance for the life of the Church and the broader culture. The contributing authors are Prudence Allen, John Deely, Elizabeth Jane Doering, Heather Erb, Doug Flippen, Heidi Giebel, Ben Huff, James Jacobs, Florian Michel, Mark Moes, Brenna Moore, Bernadette OConnor, Matthew Pugh, James V. Schall, Joshua Schulz, Daniel Shields, Michael Torre, and John Wippel. (shrink)

“La Poésie Comme Exercice Spirituel” first appeared in a 1942 issue of Revue Fontaine edited by Jacques and Raissa Maritain and was subsequently republished in Wah’s 1948 text Poésie, Pensée, Perception, published by Calmann-Lévy. The following is a translation of the Fontaine version. I have noted all of the variations from the latter version in the notes. As I emphasize in my commentary, the piece is a notable display of Wahl’s eclectic range of influences. Most importantly, it shows the (...) extent to which his interest in radical empiricism and process metaphysics informs his creative approach to the intersection of poetics and metaphysics. These interests are not explicitly named in the essay, and yet their influence is pervasive. The essay also includes several moments of substantial resonance with the work of Gilles Deleuze, as noted in the commentary. (shrink)

L'A. examine ici le regard que la philosophie porte sur la Bible. Pour ce faire, il ne s'intéresse qu'au sacrifice d'Abraham et il observe ce qu'en disent des philosophes comme Hegel ou Kant. A leur attitude réprobatrice, l'A. oppose celle de Sören Kierkegaard et de son ouvrage Crainte et tremblement. Celui-ci fait d'Abraham un intrépide chevalier de la foi qui abolit le chevalier tragique et résigné. Il en va tout autrement chez Kafka, Raïssa Maritain et Giulio Lequier dont l'A. (...) rapporte fidèlement les écrits consacrés à Abraham. (shrink)

Two of Jacques Maritain's enduring classics are Existence and the Existent and The Person and the Common Good. In the first he explores the key themes of his constructive Thomism while engaging broad currents of existentialist thought. In the second he proposes a personalist-communitarian vision that illuminates the common good. Maritain's paired concerns of metaphysics and politics, and their often-surprising connections, set the stage for this new volume. In Search of Harmony: Metaphysics and Politics is comprised of original (...) essays by twenty scholars. Some contributors are well-established, while others bring fresh voices to the perennial philosophy. The authors trace the metaphysical commitments of political thought and highlight the political implications of metaphysical perspectives. Of special note are the essays that examine the roots of our political predicaments and how we might heal our cultural confusions. Still other essays examine the sources of conscience in the context of a secular liberal polity that seems unable to recognize them. To be sure, the interplay of metaphysics and politics has a rich historical background. History tells us that there have always been implications for conscience. We need only think of Plato and Aristotle and Augustine for classical antecedents, of Hobbes and Locke and Kant for early modern antecedents, of Hegel and Marx in the nineteenth century, of Buber and Mounier and Arendt in the twentieth century. In their reflections the contributors to this volume explore many of these figures. Nonetheless, this work has its own distinct purpose and perspective. Drawing these essays together is the tradition of The American Maritain Association and its signature commitment to the work of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain and of other Thomists who clarify our "interesting times" and challenge the established disorder. (shrink)

Published in 1913 as _La Philosophie Bergsonienne_, this incisive critique of the thought of Henri Bergson was Jacques Maritain's first book. In it he shows himself already to have an authoritative grasp of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and an uncanny ability to demonstrate its relevance to alternative philosophical systems such as that of Henri Bergson. Volume 1 in the series _The Collected Works of Jacques Maritain_, this edition faithfully reproduces the 1955 translation published by the Philosophical Library. (...) It would be difficult to overestimate Bergson’s role in extricating French philosophy from the deadening materialism that dominated the Sorbonne. It was that cultural milieu that brought Maritain and his wife Raïssa to the brink of suicide. They drew back for two major reasons. First were the lectures of Henri Bergson at the Collège de France, in which the Maritains found a defense of metaphysics, of the transcendent beyond the material, within which they could find meaning in life. The second reason was their conversion to Catholicism, a move they and many of their contemporaries made after being introduced to Bergson’s work. Soon after his conversion, Jacques Maritain immersed himself in the thought of Thomas Aquinas and was struck by the comparative weaknesses of Bergson. This book is Maritain’s relentless criticism of the philosophy of the man whose lectures had meant so much to him. Its ferocity marks it as a young man’s book, written in part to exorcize the defects of Bergson’s philosophy as they were understood by one now schooled in Thomism. Twenty-five years later, Maritain, while not retracting his criticisms, regretted their intemperance and, as a result, moderated his assessment of Bergson in a long preface to the second edition. In it, we find a philosopher who mastered his craft and a critic of rare perception and refinement. (shrink)

t. 1. Les années françaises, 1927-1940 -- t. 2. Les années américaines, 1941-1961.

With this new volume of the _Collected Works of Jacques Maritain_, the University of Notre Dame Press is publishing the first English edition of a remarkable group of essays which Maritain prepared for publication in the year before his death. He brings together various writings which had previously not appeared in print or had circulated privately. The heart of the book is to be found in two series of articles. The first consists of ten philosophical essays. There are essays (...) which deal with truth, with philosophy at the time of Vatican II, and with the divine aseity; two on philosophy of nature dealing with evolution and with animal instinct; and three in moral philosophy. A second series is made up of mainly theological articles. Four are contributions to what Maritain calls an existential epistemology. They are followed by a moving meditation on the Mass and the Church triumphant. When he lay dying at Fossanova, Thomas Aquinas, in deference to the wishess of the Cistercians, with whom he had found refuge, wrote a commentary on the Song of Songs. How better could a lifelong Thomist round off his lifetime of writing than with his own essay on the Song of Songs? This is what Maritian does in the serenely profound meditation that closes the volume. (shrink)

A reprint of Maritain's classic reflection on social and political issues.

A obra "O racional e o místico em Wittgenstein" é uma das obras do professor Urbano Zilles, da PUC-RS, que tem a finalidade de mostrar um panorama da filosofia de Ludwig Wittgenstein com leitura e análise de suas principais obras: Tractatus Lógicus-philosophicus e Investigações Filosóficas.

Aristotle -- Art and the artist -- Being -- The Christian life -- Christian philosophy -- The Church -- Culture and civilization -- Democracy and democratic society -- Descartes and Cartesian philosophy -- Philosophy of education -- Evil -- Ethics -- Faith -- Freedom -- God -- History -- Humanism -- Intellect and intelligence -- Knowing and knowledge -- Man -- Marx and Marxism -- Metaphysics and metaphysicians -- Moral philosophy -- Mystery and mysticism -- Natural law and human rights (...) -- The person -- The person and the individual -- Personality -- Philosophers -- Philosophy -- Poetry and the poet -- Politics, society, and the state -- Prayer and contemplation -- Reason and reasoning -- Science -- Theology and the theologian -- St. Thomas and Thomism -- Truth -- Varia -- Wisdom. (shrink)

Presenting with moving insight the relations between man, as a person and as an individual, and the society of which he is a part, Maritain's treatment of a lasting topic speaks to this generation as well as those to come. Maritain employs the personalism rooted in Aquinas's doctrine to distinguish between social philosophy centered in the dignity of the human person and that centered in the primacy of the individual and the private good.

Background: Pediatric nursing care involves many significant ethical challenges. Although nurses are broadly recognized as professionals with relevant knowledge about children and families, little is known about how nurses experience ethical concerns in their everyday practice. Objective: The objective of this study was to better understand the moral experiences and related moral distress experiences of nurses working in pediatric settings in Brazil. Design: Interpretative phenomenological study conducted through narrative interviews. Participants and research context: Nine nurses working in three pediatric settings (...) of a teaching hospital in a city of Southern Brazil. Ethical considerations: The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the research site, and research ethics principles were respected throughout the study. Findings: This investigation illuminated a broader dimension of nurses’ moral distress, which was recognized as moral experience. In advancing our understanding of nurses’ moral experiences, engagement was identified as a central phenomenon that is present in the understandings and actions of nurses within their relationships in their daily practice and lived experiences. Three themes were described with regard to nurses’ relationships and their moral experiences: (a) relationship with the healthcare team; (b) relationship with the family; and (c) relationship with the child. Discussion: The findings of this study are congruent with emerging health literature that demonstrated the focus on moral distress as limiting for bioethical inquiry. Moreover, it is important to better understand and recognize nurses’ relational environment and engagements to advance understandings of the ethical dimensions of pediatric nursing practice. Conclusion: This study provides a better understanding on how engagement affects moral experiences, demonstrating how nurses can experience distress but also satisfaction, gratification, rewarding feelings, and a sense of responsibility for the care they provide. (shrink)

This critique of Henri Bergson is Jacques Maritain's first book. In it he shows he has a grasp of the thought of St Thomas Aquinas and an ability to show its relevance to other systems such as that of Bergson. This text presents Jacques Maritain's as a philosopher, a Thomist and a critic.

Far more telling than mere biography, this collection of the extant letters exchanged between philosopher Jacques Maritain and social activist Saul Alinsky reveals a deep and intimate friendship, however unexpected and unlikely. Indeed, to all who knew or knew of them the dignified, prominent philosopher and the earthy, truculent genius of social reform seemed antithetical to one another in almost every way. The Maritain-Alinsky correspondence began in 1945, shortly after they met, and continued until Alinsky's death in 1972. (...) The tone and content of the letters vary widely, ranging from expressions of mutual admiration and friendship, to details of the triumphs and tragedies of their personal lives, to anguished considerations of death and immortality. In their letters Maritain and Alinsky offer each other personal expressions of strong mutual support - as well as judicious warnings and slightly apprehensive distancing - for the different works each had undertaken at various times in his respective careers. They also discuss the Catholic church, taking ironic jibes at clerical pomposity and exchanging praise of the socially aware. Though it is difficult to tell whether either man had a significant influence on the thought and work of the other, their correspondence attests that the philosopher and the provocateur, so different in personality, educational backgrounds, demeanor, and intellectual affinities, enjoyed a surprisingly intimate and extraordinary friendship. With context and interpretation of the letters provided by the editor, this intriguing collection of lively, moving letters not only reveals the depths of a most improbable friendship, it also goes far in exposing thehumanity behind the personas. (shrink)

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. (shrink)