{"id":62162,"date":"2018-06-22T00:16:40","date_gmt":"2018-06-22T06:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=62162"},"modified":"2018-09-05T09:53:31","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T15:53:31","slug":"jacques-and-raissa-maritain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/06\/jacques-and-raissa-maritain.html","title":{"rendered":"Jacques and Ra\u00efssa Maritain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"1938,<\/a>
Jacques Maritain in roughly 1938 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain\u00a0(1882-1973), although raised a Protestant, became an\u00a0agnostic in the course of his schooling. \u00a0In 1904, he married the Russian-born\u00a0Ra\u00efssa Oumansoff (1883-1960). \u00a0She had been raised a Jew, but had become an atheist.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1906, both Jacques and Ra\u00efssa converted to Catholicism. \u00a0Shortly thereafter, he completed his studies at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and the University in Heidelberg, in Germany .<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jacques Maritain was a prolific author, writing more than sixty books over a long lifetime. \u00a0Crucially influenced by Henri Bergson<\/a> and then, in his transition to Catholicism, by L\u00e9on Bloy<\/a>, Maritain was most fundamentally affected by his reading of the great medieval philosopher and theologian\u00a0Thomas Aquinas<\/a>. \u00a0Effectively, he devoted his life to an effort to revive Thomism for modern thinkers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maritain and\u00a0Giovanni Montini were close friends for many years, and Maritain was something of a mentor to Montini, who eventually reigned as Pope Paul VI from 1963 until his death in 1978. \u00a0Ra\u00efssa having died in 1960, Pope Paul seriously considered creating Maritain a lay cardinal in honor of his work, but the philosopher was not receptive to that idea.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is talk, in some circles, of an effort to \u201cbeatify\u201d<\/a> both Jacques Maritain and his wife Ra\u00efssa, who developed her own reputation as a philosopher, poet, and mystic.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are three passages chosen from Jacques Maritain\u2019s voluminous writings:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since science\u2019s competence extends to observable and measurable phenomena, not to the inner being of things, and to the means, not to the ends of human life, it would be nonsense to expect that the progress of science will provide men with a new type of metaphysics, ethics, or religion.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Absolute atheism starts in an act of faith in reverse gear and is a full-blown religious commitment. Here we have the first internal inconsistency of contemporary atheism: it proclaims that all religion must necessarily vanish away, and it is itself a religious phenomenon.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are absolute atheists \u2026 Absolute atheism is in no way a mere absence of belief in God. It is rather a refusal of God, a fight against God, a challenge to God.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We should also, though, perhaps hear just a bit from Ra\u00efssa. \u00a0She kept a spiritual journal that even Jacques saw only after her death. \u00a0Here\u2019s a line from it that was apparently very sincere:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I love the saints because they are lovable; and the sinners because they are like me.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 The French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain\u00a0(1882-1973), although raised a Protestant, became an\u00a0agnostic in the course of his schooling. \u00a0In 1904, he married the Russian-born\u00a0Ra\u00efssa Oumansoff (1883-1960). \u00a0She had been raised a Jew, but had become an atheist. \u00a0 In 1906, both Jacques and Ra\u00efssa converted to Catholicism. \u00a0Shortly thereafter, he completed his studies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nJacques and Ra\u00efssa Maritain<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    The French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain\u00a0(1882-1973), although raised a Protestant, became an\u00a0agnostic in the course of 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