The Things That Matter:
Essays Inspired by the Later of Work of Jacques Maritain
Edited by Heidi Geibel
Book Overview
In the final year of his long life, eminent Thomist philosopher Jacques Maritain prepared a final book for publication: a collection of previously unpublished writings entitled Approaches san entraves, later translated into English as Untrammeled Approaches. That collection, both in its conversational yet reverent tone and in its weighty topics – faith, love, truth, beauty – gives the reader the sense that she is receiving from a great teacher and friend the most important nuggets of wisdom for the next generation. Throughout the book, Maritain shares with his readers, from his heart as well as his intellect, regarding the things that really matter; that book – and those things – are the primary inspiration for the present volume.
This volume, comprised of original essays by twenty English-speaking Thomists on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Untrammeled Approaches' first English appearance, explores several of Maritain's still-untrammeled (or at least less-trammeled) themes. While following his unbeaten paths, the contributing authors find and refine hidden treasures at every turn. They develop some of his more speculative ideas regarding the spiritual world – including the last things, the fate of the fallen angels, and a possible angelic role in evolution. They reflect deeply on a few of Maritain's recurring themes: for example, the nature of beauty and intuition. They analyze the implications – positive and negative – of Maritain's philosophy of love, marriage, and sexuality. And they consider and apply his arguments regarding appropriate roles and interactions of Church and state. The volume concludes with big-picture reflections on Maritain, his thought, and his enduring relevance.
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Contents
Heidi M. Giebel, “Introduction: The Things that Matter”
Lawrence Feingold, “Maritain's Eschatological Reverie and the Fittingness of Limbo”
Travis Dumsday, “Maritain on Limbo and Demonic Beatitude”
James Hanink, “Being, Beauty, and Converging Intuition”
Megan Furman, “The Place of Poetry in Human Blessedness: An Epistemological Expansion”
Gregory Kerr, “The Centrality of Intuition: Jacques Maritain and Flannery O'Connor”
Marie George, “What Are We to Make of Maritain's View that Angels are Intermediary Causes in Evolution?”
Mark Moes, “Maritain, Mascall, Pendergast, and Ashley: Untrammeled Approaches to the Doctrine of Original Sin from an Evolutionary Perspective”
Michael Pakaluk, “The Meaning of Sex Differences and Marriage in Maritain”
Matthew Minerd, “Maritain and the Metaphysics of Sexual Differentiation
Nikolaj Zunic, “Maritain's Concept of Virtue as a Form of Movement and its Application to Human Generation”
Romanus Cessario O.P., “Sacrifice and Priesthood: Maritain's Still Untrammeled Approaches “
Heather M. Erb, “Towards an Aristotelian Prologue to the Spiritual Life: Ecclesial Themes in Maritain and Aquinas”
Alice Ramos, “Ratzinger on Faith, Philosophy, and Trust”
John J. Conley S.J., “Canticle: Maritain, John Paul II, Benedict XVI”
Walter Schultz, “Toward a Grammar of Liberation: Exploring the Contours of Salvation in the Twenty-First Century”
Michael D. Breidenbach, “Jacques Maritain and Leo XIII on the Problem of Church-State Relations”
William McCormick S.J., “‘All the Articulations of the Real’: Jacques Maritain on Catholic Social Teaching
Mario O. D'Souza C.S.B., “The Unity of the Thought of Jacques Maritain”
Michael Novak, “The Crucial Role of Leon Bloy in the Maritains' Catholicism”
Michael D. Torre, “‘Un Bras d'Athlete et Une Haute Voix de Lamentateur’: Why I Love Jacques Maritain”
About the Authors
Index