Philosophandum in fide
A Catholic philosophical association in the spirit of Jacques Maritain
Founded in 1977, the American Maritain Association has been an intellectual home for generations of Catholic philosophers and theologians. Carrying forward the Thomistic tradition along the lines which inspired the work of the 20th-century philosopher Jacques Maritain, the Association has held yearly conferences for over forty years and continues to publish texts gathering together the best of the papers dedicated to each year’s particular theme.
THE 48th ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN MARITAIN ASSOCIATION
Thursday, April 3 to Saturday, April 5, 2025
Hosted by the Ave Maria University, Ave Maria, FL
The Range of Reason: From Empirioschematic Science to Natural and Supernatural Mysticism
In The Range of Reason, Maritain confidently avers: “If I…am a Thomist, it is in the last analysis because I have understood that the intellect sees, and that it is cut out to conquer being.” Maritain stands in clear contrast to one of the more paradoxical developments of modern thought: the growing distrust of the capacity of human reason to attain truth. So disconcerting is this development that even Popes have made it a focus of their pastoral concern. As St. John Paul II notes in Fides et ratio: “It has happened therefore that reason, rather than voicing the human orientation towards truth, has wilted under the weight of so much knowledge and little by little has lost the capacity to lift its gaze to the heights, not daring to rise to the truth of being…. Rather than make use of the human capacity to know the truth, modern philosophy has preferred to accentuate the ways in which this capacity is limited and conditioned.”
Against this reductionist tendency, Jacques Maritain ardently defended the power of human reason to grasp the truth of all being. This is evident in the breadth of his work over his career, from the philosophy of science to metaphysics, from political theory to mysticism. The essays collected in The Range of Reason exemplify the necessity of reason attaining truth in every sphere of human endeavor: “By its very nature, knowledge does not tend toward power, nor even toward action; it tends toward truth. And at all the degrees of knowledge, from the lowest to the highest, it is truth that liberates.”
In response to the modern tendency to limit reason, we invite papers that consider the range of reason; not only the essays in the collection by that name, but the principle that the entire spectrum of being is accessible to human intelligence. We especially encourage papers that consider those aspects of knowledge which modernity marginalizes as not within the purview of reason. Maritain’s repeated studies of mysticism, both natural and supernatural, are an outstanding example of this.
The plenary speakers reflect this breadth of the intelligibility of being from ethics to metaphysics to mysticism: Fulvio di Blasi (Thomas International); Steven A. Long (Ave Maria University); Cajetan Cuddy, OP (Dominican House of Studies); and, Brian Kemple (Lyceum Institute).
Please send proposals of up to 500 words to Dr. James Murdoch at MaritainAssociation.papers@gmail.com by January 15, 2025. Final presentations should be 25-30 minutes in length.
2024–2025 Endowment Fundraising Drive
The AMA announces its 2024–2025 Endowment Fundraising Drive! In order to help facilitate the continued publication of our book series, we are inviting both members and other donors to consider making a tax deductible donation to the AMA. The Association's publication work is intended to be a service to the broader intellectual and ecclesial community, providing peer reviewed resources for those interested in the content of our conferences. Those who donate $500 will be acknowledged in the next five volumes to be published as Sponsors of the AMA book series.
We are pleased to announce that we have an initial anonymous offer to donate $5,000 matching the first $5,000 of donations. Moreover, this same donor has offered to give an additional $5,000 if we can reach the $20,000 threshold. This is a wonderful beginning, and I hope we do not fail to take advantage of this charitable offer!
To make a donation, checks can be mailed to
James M. Jacobs
President, American Maritain Association
Notre Dame Seminary
2901 S. Carrollton Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70118
Donations can also be made online here. (Note that we have a small service fee charged by our online system.)
The De Nicola Center at the University of Notre Dame has many texts on sale right now, a number of interest to the members of the AMA—including works by our own members.
2024–2025 Membership Dues
It’s that time once again to collect dues and register new members! Thank you for your continued dedication to the American Maritain Association
Payments handled through Stripe.
Thanks to everyone who helped to make the conference a great success. It was wonderful to be together and to share spiritually, intellectually, and in friendship! We look forward to seeing everyone in 2025 in Florida!
(2024 Conference)
Maritain on Democracy: Promise and Peril; and Commemorating the 750th Anniversary of St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas
Thursday, April 11 to Saturday, April 13, 2024
(Hosted by St. Bernard’s School of Theology, Rochester, NY)
Conference Program
Three of our plenary speakers:
Drs. Timothy Noone, Russell Hittinger, and David Walsh
The Eighth Saint Anselm Conference: Saint Anselm and the Teaching of Nicea
April 3-5, 2025
Saint Anselm College
Manchester, New Hampshire
Plenary Speaker:
Thomas J. McKenna
Concord University
The Eighth Saint Anselm Conference is dedicated to the foundational teaching of Nicea, the first of the great ecumenical councils, in anticipation of its 1700 th anniversary in June, 2025. Papers are invited on the treatment of the divine substance, as well as its relevance to Christology, in the work of Anselm, his predecessors and his successors. Further, in view of his defense of the filioque clause at the Council of Bari, papers are welcome that focus on this point in Anselm, and on the Holy Spirit in the patristic and medieval tradition. Finally, papers on other aspects of Anselm’s thought are also of interest.
Maritain News from the UK
The conference Beggars for Heaven: The Inheritance of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain, in Cambridge back in March was a great success. There were 30 attendees and some outstanding papers, including from John Rist and our own John Trapani. Mass was celebrated by the Diocesan Bishop, who also attended the conference. Our expectations were exceeded in respect of the range of attendees – lay, religious, academic, practitioners, and those who just wanted to know more about Maritain. Thank you for the amazing support from many AMA members. The feedback was so positive that a follow-up was immediately discussed. This has crystalised into a firm, more ambitious event . . .
Thomism, Creativity and The Arts: Maritain on Culture in the Modern World (working title) is an exciting collaboration between Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge and Blackfriars Hall, Oxford – with significant input from The Scala Foundation in the US. The conference is part of Blackfriars Hall’s initiative to build up a centre for Theology and the Arts. The date tbc is either during the last week of June or the first week of July 2025, working around two other large conferences in Oxford, which attendees travelling a long way may also wish to attend. Several high-profile speakers are already confirmed (including the UK’s most prolific and celebrated composer). But we are looking for other contributors – principally in the confluence of theology/philosophy and arts/aesthetics. It would be wonderful to have AMA representation once again.
Further updates to follow, but in the meantime do contact Chris for more information. christopher.grey1@outlook.com
April 2024 Special Issue of
Journal of Moral Theology Special Issue
“Catholicism, Challenges to Democracy, and the Legacy of Jacques Maritain”
Why might Maritain be helpful now? The authors in this journal issue suggest a range of reasons. Among the most important is that Maritain has described the moral and spiritual grounding of democracy. He articulates the moral value of democracy as the form of politics that best allows Christians to live out love of neighbor and enemy in concrete ways.
— Laurie Johnston, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Emmanuel College in Boston and Co-editor of this Special Issue
Introduction: Jacques Maritain and Contemporary Challenges to Democracy by Laurie Johnston
Threading the Needle: Jacques Maritain’s Defense of a Christian and Liberal Democracy by Mary Doak
Jacques Maritain, “Pure” Nature, and the State’s Teleological Crisis by Gilbrian Stoy, CSC
Distinct But Not Separate: Rethinking Maritain’s Distinction of Planes to Recover His Democratic Potential by Travis Knoll
Rescuing Maritain from His Reception History: A Reappraisal of William T. Cavanaugh’s Critique in Torture and Eucharist by Brian J. A. Boyd
Revisiting Maritain in the Present Context—A Response to Gilbrian Stoy, Travis Knoll, and Brian Boyd by William T. Cavanaugh
Partners in Forming the People: Jacques Maritain, Saul Alinsky, and the Project of Personalist Democracy by Nicholas Hayes-Mota
Community Organizing for Democratic Renewal: The Significance of Jacques Maritain’s Support for Saul Alinsky and His Methods by Brian Stiltner
A Common World is Possible: Maritain, Pope Francis, and the Future of Global Governance by Kevin Ahern
Catholic Social Teaching: Toward a Decolonial Praxis by Alex Mikulich
Afterword by John T. McGreevy
Get the latest issue of the Maritain Notebook!
Metaphysics Conference: The Liturgy of the Eucharist
June 12-13, 2024
Saint Anselm College
Manchester, New Hampshire
The Institute for Saint Anselm Studies invites papers for a conference on the Catholic Eucharistic Liturgy.
Keynote Speaker, Rev. Kurt Belsole, OSB, Coordinator of Liturgical Formation at the Pontifical North American College, Vatican City State, Rome.
The Eucharistic liturgy is both the summit of the Church’s prayer and the sacramental event that makes present and brings forth the body of Christ.
Papers are welcomed on topics ranging from the nature and history of the liturgy to the metaphysics of the Eucharistic change.
Selected papers will be published in The Saint Anselm Journal.
Please send an abstract of 100-200 words to Montague Brown (mbrown@anselm.edu) by February 19, 2024.
Francis X. Slade (1927–2022)
We sorrowfully inform the membership of the passing of Franicis Slade, former member of the AMA, whose work in political philosophy has had a lasting impact upon many of us. More information can be found below.
Jacques Maritain in the 21st Century:
Personalism and the Political Organization of the World
Walter Schultz is Auxiliary Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the Dominican University College, Canada, and has served for seven years as President of the Canadian Jacques Maritain Association and Editor of the association’s journal, Études maritainiennes/Maritain Studies.
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