Jacques Maritain

In this essay the integralist tendency in theological anthropology underlying the universalist tendency in eschatology is explored. Hence, there are certain eschatological implications to one's position on the question of the natural desire to see God. I begin by analyzing the nature-grace relationship in Hans Urs von Balthasar, a proponent of "subjunctive universalism," and proceed to propose Bernard Lonergan's tertia via between integralism and dualism as a more sophisticated and nuanced way forward. Finally, I pair Lonergan's position on the question with Jacques Maritain's in order to clarify the eschatological possibilities that follow most coherently from such an understanding of the nature-grace relationship.Secularization and the Entweltlichung of the Church

Chapter 3 in Mark Bosco, SJ, and Brent Little, eds. _Revelation and Convergence: Flannery O'Connor and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition_.  Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2017. 78-98.  Discusses Flannery O'Connor's narrative approach to the possibility of a fictional knowledge of another person's heart by positioning her narrative ideas and practices within a debate (of which O'Connor was aware) carried out between François Mauriac and Jacques Maritain, and recently developed further by Jean-Louis Chrétien in his two volume _Conscience et roman_.

mondiale et de la permanence obligée de Maritain aux États-Unis, un « exil » qui 1 Je reprends ici les résultats d'une recherche plus vaste, que l'on peut lire maintenant dans Daniele Lorenzini, Jacques Maritain e i diritti umani. Fra totalitarismo, antisemitismo e democrazia (1936-1951), Brescia, Morcelliana, coll. « Storia », 2012. Qu'il me soit permis de remercier Daniele Menozzi, sans lequel cette recherche ne serait même pas commencée, et René Mougel pour sa disponibilité, son soutien et son constant encouragement, ainsi que pour ses précieux commentaires sur cet article.

The concept of modernity has emerged as a major philosophical, theological and sociological category of interpretation in the aftermath of the French Revolution. It was meant to embrace fundamental changes to the fabric of Western culture including the rise of capitalism, liberalism, democracy, and secularity. From its inception, references to Luther and the Reformation have been a frequent element of this kind of theory. The first major theorist of modernity in this sense was arguably Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel who set the tone of subsequent contributions by aligning modernity with subjectivity. For him, the religious dimension of this development was crucial, and he was explicit in his claim that it was the Reformation that brought the turn to subjectivity in the realm of religion. A side-effect of the turn to subjectivity was the alienation of the subject from the world. Modernity is thus deeply ambivalent and so is Protestantism. Later thinkers developed further these insights, but also criticised the identification of Luther with the origin of modernity pointing to continuities between his theology and earlier, medieval thought.
The article discusses the following thinkers: Hegel, Ritschl, Troeltsch, Weber, de Maistre, and Maritain.

In the most wide-ranging history of phenomenology since Herbert Spiegelberg’s The Phenomenological Movement over fifty years ago, Baring uncovers a new and unexpected force―Catholic intellectuals―behind the growth of phenomenology in the early twentieth century, and makes the case for the movement’s catalytic intellectual and social impact.

Of all modern schools of thought, phenomenology has the strongest claim to the mantle of “continental” philosophy. In the first half of the twentieth century, phenomenology expanded from a few German towns into a movement spanning Europe. Edward Baring shows that credit for this prodigious growth goes to a surprising group of early enthusiasts: Catholic intellectuals. Placing phenomenology in historical context, Baring reveals the enduring influence of Catholicism in twentieth-century intellectual thought.

Converts to the Real argues that Catholic scholars allied with phenomenology because they thought it mapped a path out of modern idealism―which they associated with Protestantism and secularization―and back to Catholic metaphysics. Seeing in this unfulfilled promise a bridge to Europe’s secular academy, Catholics set to work extending phenomenology’s reach, writing many of the first phenomenological publications in languages other than German and organizing the first international conferences on phenomenology. The Church even helped rescue Edmund Husserl’s papers from Nazi Germany in 1938. But phenomenology proved to be an unreliable ally, and in debates over its meaning and development, Catholic intellectuals contemplated the ways it might threaten the faith. As a result, Catholics showed that phenomenology could be useful for secular projects, and encouraged its adoption by the philosophical establishment in countries across Europe and beyond.

Baring traces the resonances of these Catholic debates in postwar Europe. From existentialism, through the phenomenology of Paul Ricoeur and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, to the speculative realism of the present, European thought bears the mark of Catholicism, the original continental philosophy.

I can't even recall how or why it came about, but around twenty years ago I tripped across Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and was hooked! Since then I have read most of her writings and a few works by others analyzing her style and stories. Recently Michael Mears Bruner, associate professor of practical theology at Azusa Pacific University in California, and ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), has presented his own examination of O'Connor in a 260 page softback, "A Subversive Gospel: Flannery O'Connor and the Reimagining of Beauty, Goodness, and Truth," which is part of IVP Academic's "Studies in Theology and the Arts" series. This well-written volume is ideal for O'Connor aficionados, amateurs and interested authors. The author, beyond the introduction and conclusion, works through five lengthy chapters that evaluate O'Connor's literary and spiritual formation that shaped and colored her stories. Bruner shows how the primary shapers of her moral and dramatic vision were Baron Friedrich von Hügel, Thomas Aquinas via Jacques Maritain, her tussle with debilitating illness and her Southern habitation. Yet, in the end, the moral and dramatic vision were genuinely hers; "through her fiction, Flannery O'Connor subverted the conventional notions of truth,

LES IMPLICATIONS PHILOSOPHICO-PÉDAGOGIQUES DU CHOIX DE BASE DE L’HOMME.
Le soulignement de la dimension subjective de la morale et aussi l’essai de saisir l’unité fondamentale du dynamisme moral de la personne est le dénominateur commun des idées de J. Maritain et de D. von Hildebrand qui concernent la décision de base de l’homme. Selon les opinions des auteurs mentionnés l’homme par sa décision de base non seulement fait un choix moral, mais plutôt se définit soi-même envers le Bien donnant la direction principale à sa vie. Ces auteurs non seulement accordent la valeur à la dimension subjective de la décision de base, mais soulignent d’une manière aussi forte sa dimension objective. D’un côté c’est la conscience de l’existance de la loi objective, implicite, comprise dans l’expériance du bien admissible (bonum honestum) et de l’autre côté c’est l’intention de base, orientée vers le monde des valeurs. Il est important que la dimension subjective de la décision de base possède la préférence dans le sens que la relation avec le monde objectif des valeurs indique la valeur morale de tous les acts faits par la personne. Il faut ajouter que l’homme peut prendre les décisions morales stables par lesquelles est capable de réaliser “le projet” de sa vocation de vie uniquement à l’appui du monde des valeurs stables.

En el centenario de su bautismo, este artículo presentó una semblanza del renombrado pensador cristiano, de su formación y de su doble conversión (al tomismo y al catolicismo), así como del testimonio de fe en que se convirtió su vida y pensamiento.

Realist Christian philosophers and theologians have frequently derided modern painting as antirealist, antithetical to the Western artistic tradition, nihilistic, or otherwise of little or no aesthetic or philosophical value. 1 By "modern painting," I mean the styles of the last century and a half of the European tradition in painting, including impressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, surrealism, and expressionism. Dietrich von Hildebrand is one realist Christian philosopher who engages in these sorts of criticism. 2 In the context of this paper, by "realist philosopher" I mean any philosopher who holds the following: First, such a philosopher holds that in our intentional acts and experiences we primarily grasp realities, as opposed to words, propositions, concepts, or representations. Second, he or she holds that what we grasp in our intentional acts and experiences are for the most part irreducible to items distinct from those that he or she has directly grasped. (To say that one thing is irreducible to another is to say that it is not the case that the former is nothing but the latter.) Third, such a philosopher takes his or her task to be perceiving and accounting for every irreducible aspect of reality and especially those that are most fundamental-that is, most explanatory-of other aspects of reality. Many Christian philosophers, especially many scholastics and realist phenomenologists, including Hildebrand, fit this description. 3 To say that modern art is "antirealist" is to say

Introduction to the collection of essays entitled "Messiaen the Theologian." Includes a rationale for the collection and brief description of each essay. For Olivier Messiaen, music was a way of expressing his faith. He considered it his good fortune to have been born a Catholic and declared that “the illumination of the theological truths of the Catholic faith is the first aspect of my work, the noblest and no doubt the most useful.” Messiaen is one of the most widely performed and recorded composers of the twentieth-century and his popularity is increasing, but the theological component of his music has so far been neglected and continues to provide a serious impediment for some of his audience. Messiaen the Theologian makes a significant contribution by providing cultural and historical context to Messiaen’s theology. An array of international Messiaen scholars cover a wide variety of topics including Messiaen's personal spirituality, the context of Catholicism in France in the twentieth century, and comparisons of Messiaen with other artists such as Dante, TS Eliot, and Maritain.

Introducing Messiaen the Theologian
Andrew Shenton

Part One Messiaen the theologian
1 Religious literature in Messiaen’s personal library
Yves Balmer
2 Messiaen as preacher and evangelist in the context of European modernism
Peter Bannister
3 Messiaen’s ‘saintly naïveté’
Sander van Maas

Part Two Messiaen’s relationship with theologians
4 Olivier Messiaen and Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger: two views of the liturgical reform according to the Second Vatican Council
Karin Heller
5 Messiaen’s relationship to Jacques Maritain’s musical circle and neo-Thomism
Douglas Shadle
6 Messiaen and Aquinas
Vincent P. Benitez

Part Three Messiaen, poets and theological themes
7 Dante as guide to Messiaen’s Gothic spirituality
Robert Fallon
8 Five quartets: the search for the still point of the turning world in the war works of T. S. Eliot and Olivier Messiaen
Andrew Shenton

This article offers an introduction to Jacques Maritain's relations with the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. First, it describes the marginal role of Maritain in the drafting process. Then, it explains the French philosopher's encounters with the most critical drafters, especially with those with more philosophical background and with those with whom we have enough sources to build up an argument.

Resumen de los dos primeros capítulos de la obra de Jacques Maritain EL HOMBRE Y EL ESTADO. La obra utilizada para este trabajo ha sido: JACQUES MARITAIN, El hombre y el Estado, Traducción de M. GURREA, Editorial Guillermo Kraft Limitada, Buenos Aires, 1952.

In this paper I analyze the ethical foundation of democracy theorized by the French philosopher Jacques Maritain, especially considering his book Man and the State (1951). He proposed an ideal of democracy based on the concepts of human dignity, common good, and respect of human rights. Therefore, he criticized the sovereignity of the modern state and the nationalism that led to the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. In the paper, particular attention is given to the most current aspects of  Maritain’s political thought: the ideal of a “personalistic and cosmopolitan democracy.”

Il saggio di Edith Stein intende porre un confronto tra la fenomenologia di E. Husserl e la filosofia di Tommaso d’Aquino. A partire dalla visione stessa della filosofia, E. Stein osserva i punti d’incontro tra due tipologie di pensiero diversi per contesto, riferimento storico e contenuto gnoseologico.
Se appare qualche accordo, tuttavia, a livello filosofico, si deve tenere presente che l’intenzionalità del conoscere non è conciliabile con il realismo tomista, che sostiene l’intelligibilità dell’essere. Un accordo di fondo con un disaccordo di fondo: ci sembra che questa formula, coniata da C. Fabro, riassuma lo studio di E. Stein nel suo confronto fra il maestro che l’aveva formata e che veniva lasciando (Husserl) e il maestro medievale da cui si lasciava ora formare e che veniva accettando (Tommaso).

The essay of E. Stein’s tries to make a comparison between the E. Husserl’s phenomenology and Thomas Aquinas’ philosophy.
Starting from the idea of the philosophy, E. Stein focuses on the link between the two above-mentioned ways of thinking (the phenomenology at one side and the philosophy at the other side), which are different for social and historical background and for the gnoseologic content.
Tough Husserl’s phenomenology and St. Thomas’s philosophy have some common points, the intentionality of knowledge, isn’t compatible with the thomism’s realism, which deals with the being’s intelligibility.
A general agreement in a framework of disagreement: this expression, coined by C. Fabro, could represent the essence of E. Stein’s work, in the comparison between her previous teacher, from whom she was step by step distancing herself (Husserl) and the medieval teacher, who was always more accepted and followed by E. Stein (St. Thomas).

O objetivo de nossa pesquisa é avaliar o esquema argumentativo que, a partir de uma crítica genealógica à racionalidade moderna, pretende oferecer a filosofia perene de Tomás de Aquino como alternativa concreta às mazelas do humanismo ateu. Tomaremos como foco, em nossa análise, a leitura que o filósofo católico Jacques Maritain faz da transição entre a doutrina escolástica e o humanismo renascentista. - Trabalho publicado nos anais do X Simpósio Internacional Filosófico Teológico - FAJE, que ocorreu em Belo Horizonte no ano de 2014.

This is an analysis of Mondrian's Broadway Boogie-Woogie following Maritains theory of Art and Aesthetics in his book Creative Intuition. This paper analyzes the birth of this piece of art starting from the very moment of conception in the pre-conscious of Mondrian's art work untill the sharing of the "I" of the viewer

This article presents the cultural ideas as well as philosophical, social and scientific theories that shaped the concept of integral ecology presented by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si’. There are many indications that the direct impact on the thought of the Pope was St. Francis’ of Assisi vision of the world and the social teaching of the Church, especially the teachings of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. It also seems that at least an indirect impact on the ecology of the Pope’s vision expressed in the ecological encyclical was exerted by Jacques Maritain’s integral humanism. Because of the similarity of ideas, we can also assume that the earlier versions of integral ecology proposed by Ken Wilber, Leonardo Boff and Thomas Berry also to some extent might have provided inspiration for Pope Francis.

Jacques Maritain ammirò il non conformismo di Martin Lutero, tuttavia i suoi scritti tradiscono una conoscenza superficiale e indiretta del riformatore tedesco. Il suo ritratto si inserisce in una storia di fraintendimenti e incomprensioni. La fede inquieta di Lutero, viva nel paradosso, è apprezzata da papa Francesco, che tuttavia sbilanciandosi su un ecumenismo esclusivamente pratico rischia di perdere di vista la rinnovata comprensione delle verità teologiche, presupposto di ogni riforma. Lutero può aiutare papa Francesco ad evitare anche questo tipo di pelagianesimo.

This article, a translation of a lecture given by Jacques Maritain as part of a natural philosophy course,  is concerned with the ontological analysis of the nutritive functions of the soul.  Although seemingly devoted to an obscure Aristotelian topic, it actually engages several important themes: the distinction between experimental science and natural philosophy; the issue of immanent activity's first degree of presentation; and the first analogate of the properly-proportional term "life."  A translator's preface is included to provide context for the reader.

Aliquid est in anima quod est increatum et increabile; si tota anima esset talis, esset increata et increabilis; et hoc est Intellectus." (There is something in the soul which is uncreated and uncreatable; if the whole soul were such, it would be uncreated and uncreatable; and this is the Intellect.)

This paper suggests that humanism is a decisionism in contemporary critical political theory. Despite obvious and multiple differences, leading critical theorists like Giorgio Agamben, Slavoj Žižek, Eric Santner, and Jürgen Habermas, among others, share an investment in stabilizing the human being as a ground of the political. This stabilization of the human should concern political theorists, this paper argues, because it uncritically reproduces conceptual affinities between the notion of the human being and sovereign authority. By investing in the stability and centrality of the human being these theorists perform what will be called, paraphrasing an often neglected argument by Carl Schmitt, a decision to be human. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I argue that Schmitt’s decisionism is not merely circumscribed to sovereignty’s juridico-political dimension, but that it also includes a peculiar commitment to God’s decision to become human in Christ. Against this decisionism as humanism the essay draws on Walter Benjamin, Roberto Esposito and Jacques Derrida to propose an alternative politics that destabilizes humanity and sovereignty through the emergence of the animal, or what will be called melancholic lycanthropy.

Dans "Le Transcendantal : réceptions et mutations d'une notion kantienne", dir. C. Bouriau, A. Feneuil et Y. Meessen, Nancy, Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 2018, p. 151-160.

Est-il possible de revendiquer le réalisme en philosophie sans contradiction ? Cet article envisage la question à partir de la controverse entre Étienne Gilson et les néo-thomistes pendant les années 1930, avec en perspective les débats contemporains autour du "réalisme spéculatif".

"Il volume ripercorre una fase fondamentale, ma generalmente “rimossa” dalla storiografia, del pensiero di Jacques Maritain inerente ai diritti umani, riconoscibile nella sua collaborazione con un gruppo di intellettuali cattolici americani nel fondare il Committee of Catholics for Human Rights del 1939. Dagli anni newyorkesi di Maritain emerge un lato inedito del filosofo: la ferma volontà di promuovere una serie di diritti fondamentali che ogni essere umano possiede a prescindere dalla sua conoscenza della “verità” religiosa.
Si mostra così l’evoluzione del pensiero politico di Maritain, che passò da una prospettiva di tradizionale difesa dei diritti della persona, in quanto creatura spirituale e trascendente (subordinati dunque al riconoscimento dei diritti di Dio e della Chiesa cattolica), a una chiara legittimazione storico-teorica dei diritti dell’uomo, universali e inalienabili, affermatisi nel corso dell’età moderna."

По воскресным вечерам в доме Бердяева собирались не только русские, французские и немецкие интеллектуалы, но и венесуэльцы, американцы и даже представители философии Индии. Например, 11 ноября 1934 г. Бердяев имел возможность представить Габриэлю Марселю не только Раису и Веру Маритен и Льва Шестова, но также Марину Цветаеву, которая прочитала свои стихи, Елену Извольскую и Андрея Карпова 21. А в феврале 1935 г. чета Маритенов пришла в гости к Бердяеву, чтобы в присутствии швейцарского богослова Фрица Либа (1892-1970) принять участие «в споре о необходимости единства христиан в борьбе со злом» 22. Во-вторых, для обоих философов были важны межконфессиональные беседы на бульваре Монпарнас в Париже. Бердяев писал в своей автобиографии:

This is an expanded version of an online paper on The Josias. It defends my Leonine interpretation of Dignitatis Humanae, the declaration of the Second Vatican Council that teaches a moral right of the individual, based on their human dignity, to religious liberty. The declaration, I have claimed, was an application for modern times of the magisterial teaching on church and state of Leo XIII. This leaves the declaration’s right to religious liberty strictly consistent with previous church teaching.

In another paper on The Josias Thomas Storck objects that I employ what was at best a political theology of the counter-reformation, the theology of Suarez and Bellarmine. According to Storck this theology was not shared by Leo XIII, was never magisterially taught, and had nothing to do with the drafting of Dignitatis Humanae.

Storck’s claims are false. From 1964 the drafting commission explained Dignitatis Humanae by appeal to Leo XIII's teaching that the church alone was the sovereign legal authority over religion on this earth. This view of church authority came to Leo XIII from Suarez, and dominated official theology within the Catholic church up to Vatican II. It was common property to a Vatican II conservative such as Cardinal Ottaviani, to the progressives who were preparing and explaining the declaration in its final draft, to Paul VI under whose authority this final draft was being prepared, and to Jacques Maritain, to whose theology Paul VI adhered.

The young T. S. Eliot spent a year as a student in Paris, in 1910-1911. Why did he come there? What experiences did he have during that year? The paper focuses on Eliot's fascination for French poetry, his attending Bergson's lessons at the Collège de France and the lasting impact those lessons had on his poetry, and his encounter with the Action française.

I this article I tackle a series of questions related to beauty and aesthetic perception in Aquinas. Many of these questions orbit what we should make of Aquinas's claim "Pulchra enim dicuntur quae visa placent" (ST I.5.4ad1)

In the first part, I focus on beauty in Aquinas. A surprising amount of literature has been written on Aquinas's relatively scattered remarks about beauty. Drawing upon this erudite literature, I note some important hermeneutical worries about approaching these various remarks and present a summary of Aquinas's view that beauty pertains to what exhibits claritas and proportio. Perhaps the most controversial topic in this literature concerns the transcendental status of beauty in Aquinas. Again, I address some exegetical concerns about the nature of this question, and try to articulate a non-anachronistic version of the question. I then examine Jan Aertsen's well-known criticisms of exponents of the view that beauty is a transcendental for Aquinas. I demonstrate that Aertsen’s objections and arguments are not persuasive, are far from decisive, and were adequately anticipated and resolved by the interpretations of Umberto Eco and others. Indeed, it is Aertsen who has failed to address adequately the cogent interpretations of his predecessors, who rightly defend the thesis that beauty is a transcendental in Aquinas.

Transcendental beauty pertains to beauty as it is in itself (quoad se), but aesthetic beauty pertains to instances of transcendental beauty as it is manifest to us humans (i.e., quoad nos). In the second part of the essay I focus in on a specific kind of aesthetic experience, namely, that of aesthetic perception, and I look to the importance of Aquinas's doctrine of per accidens sensation by the cogitative power and intellect for understanding beauty as a per accidens sensible grasped by aesthetic perception. I then turn to investigate the way in which aesthetic perception, a cognitive operation, involves a form of pleasure, an appetitive operation.

I conclude with some speculative remarks on the importance of aesthetic virtues and cultivating an aesthetics of everyday life.

Una ricerca lunga tutta la vita Samuele Pinna : UNA RICERCA LUNGA TUTTA LA VITA. L'"UMANESIMO INTEGRALE" DI JACQUES MARITAIN NEGLI SCRITTI DI PIERO VIOTTO "Umanesimo integrale": inizio di una vita in ricerca. A Piero Viotto nel suo novantesimo compleanno s "Umanesimo integrale": inizio di una vita in ricerca. s "Umanesimo integrale" della persona. s Il tomismo di Maritain. s Lo strascico delle polemiche sulla concezione dell'"Umanesimo integrale". s Papa Paolo VI e il Concilio Vaticano II. s Inizio e senso di una ricerca.

The thought of both the ancient Greek philosopher Plato and the twentieth-century French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain can shed light on our current conversations about art and media in the United States of America, even if only to identify and elucidate the deeper philosophical issues involved. For instance, is the media an aid or a hindrance to the common good? In order to understand the importance—and possibly the danger—of art in society, one first must know what art is, how it relates to the truth, and what sort of impact it has on those who encounter it. In this paper I outline Plato’s and Maritain’s accounts of art, including their views on the relationship of art to truth, and discuss the ensuing implications of these views in regard to the role of art in society. Despite quite different accounts of what art is, Plato and Maritain share, at least in part, two convictions. First, they agree that art’s place in society rests upon its relationship to the truth, and second, because at least some art can lead those who experience it to the ultimate truths, art can play a profound—and beneficial—role in society.

In September 2021, Galerie Kornfeld presented forty works by Marc Chagall (1887-1985). The oldest auction house in the world selling works on paper: engravings, drawings, gouaches, and pastels, put up for sale beautiful artefacts from the collection of the artist's family. 1 The auction was a huge success-all the works sold, with many of them reaching high prices, and, for the first time since 1864, it was recognized as a "white glove sale". 2 Eberhard Kornfeld, who ran the gallery until 1951, contributed not only to the popularization of modern art, but also to the development of the history of engravings and drawings of the 20th century, organizing a lot of exhibitions and publishing a number of monographic catalogues including the oeuvre of

The Mystery of Christ's Beatific Suffering 989 of their master, 3 endorsed by the magisterium numerous times. 4 Two principal representatives of the turned tide are Jean Galot, S.J., 5 from whom Balthasar draws on a semi-regular basis, and one of the most eminent living Thomists, Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P. 6 I cannot possibly enter into all the details of the debate that has since ensued, but I will indicate wherein I think lies the truth by engaging a few more interlocutors.

What is beauty? How does Thomas Aquinas understand it? Does it go beyond just the physical? This paper looks at Thomas's main texts on beauty as a transcendental and then the positions of several prominent Thomists from the 20th century: Jacques Maritain, Marie-Dominique Philippe, Joseph de Finance, Leo Elders, Jan A. Aertsen and Hans Urs von Balthasar.  I concur with Aertsen's interpretation of Thomas, but agree with and try to develop Balthasar's position as in full coherence with a Thomistic metaphysics of intensive being.

Il presente studio intende soffermarsi in modo circoscritto sugli ultimi lavori di ricerca (2012-2016) di Piero Viotto (1924-2017), che si interessano all’opera di Jacques Maritain (1882-1973), di cui è stato tra i massimi esperti. La conoscenza capillare dei Maritain, sia di Jacques sia di Raïssa, permette a Viotto di approfondire il pensiero di altri autori, tra i quali spiccano papa Paolo VI e Charles Journet. L’intesa e l’amicizia tra Maritain, Journet e Montini passa attraverso la comune stima per il realismo della filosofia di san Tommaso in opposizione all’idealismo, allora dominante la cultura.
Gli studi quivi ripresentati sono avvalorati anche dall’attenzione pedagogica da parte di Viotto, il quale dopo molti anni di insegnamento si è convinto che «ai giovani bisogna insegnare a filosofare, affinché possano cogliere la verità ovunque essa si trovi».

The following study aims at focusing in a defined way on the last Piero Viotto’s (1924-2017) essays (2012-2016), which are interested in Jacques Maritain’s (1882-1973) work, of which he was one of the greatest experts. The widespread knowledge of the Maritain, both Jacques and Räissa, allows Viotto to analyse other authors’ thought, such as Paul VI and Charles Journet. The harmony and the friendship between Maritain, Journet and Montini pass through the common regard they have for the realism of St. Thomas’s philosophy opposed to the idealism, which was the major culture at that time.
The studies here illustrated are also supported by the pedagogical attention of Viotto, who, after many years of teaching, is sure that «Teaching young people how to philosophize is necessary, so that they can understand the truth anywhere».

Published in The Thomist vol 79, 2015, pp1-42. This paper, originally a lecture given at Mundelein in October 2013, examines Jacques Maritain's "Man and the State' and its impact on Vatican II's Dignitatis Humanae. Maritain helped contribute to a post-concilar 'official theology' endorsing Church-state separation. This official theology is not magisterially taught in Dignitatis Humanae, and is (a) internally incoherent, and (b) in clear conflict with Leo XIII's endorsement as an ideal of a soul-body union of Church and state. The official theology drastically underestimates the gulf that lies between secular political theory and the view of religion and the state taken by Dignitatis Humanae. Far from initiating a more harmonious concord with the secular world, Dignitatis Humanae marks the initiation of profound conflict between the secular state and the Church.

The way one addresses the question of the possibility of universal salvation and the reality of damnation is determined by one's understanding of the relationship between human freedom and divine grace. The universalist solution presupposes a predestinarian approach, which undermines the natural integrity of created freedom. Highlighting the determinative role of theological anthropology in eschatology, I propose that the subjunctive universalism advocated by some Catholic theologians, such as Hans Urs von Balthasar, ought to be replaced with a more nuanced theodramatic eschatology based upon the emerging consensus in the twentieth-century Catholic theology of grace.

Many enthusiasts of theistic evolution willingly accept Aquinas' distinction between primary and secondary causes, to describe theologically "the mechanics" of evolutionary transformism. However, their description of the character of secondary causes in relation to God's creative action oftentimes lacks precision. To some extent, the situation within the Thomistic camp is similar when it comes to specifying the exact nature of secondary and instrumental causes at work in evolution. Is it right to ascribe all causation in evolution to creatures-acting as secondary and instrumental causes? Is there any space for a more direct divine action in evolutionary transitions? The article offers a new model of explaining the complexity of the causal nexus in the origin of new biological species, including the human species, analyzed in reference to both the immanent and transcendent orders of causation. Formulated within the framework of Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy and theology, it should be helpful for all those who refer to secondary causation of creatures in theological reflection on evolution.