Jacques Maritain

Nationality

France

Date of Birth

1882

Date of Death

1973

Political
Preference

Jacques Maritain was born in Paris and raised in a liberal Protestant family. During his time at the University of Paris, he studied chemistry, biology and physics. It was during this time – 1906 specifically – that Maritain converted to the Roman Catholic faith. After his education, Maritain held several teaching positions in Canada, France and the United States. From the 1930s onwards, Maritain was an established figure in Catholic thought. From January 1933, Maritain regularly came to St Michael’s College in Toronto to give lectures. When the Second World War broke out, Maritain did not return to France and moved to New York. In New York, Maritain contributed to bringing persecuted academics from occupied Europe to the United States. He was also part of the European Exile Invitees Network of the Commission on a Just and Durable Peace. In addition, Maritain recorded several broadcasts for occupied France. After the liberation of France in 1944, Maritain became the French ambassador to the Holy See until 1948. During this time, he was also member of the French delegation to UNESCO. He was also involved in the promotion of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

During the Second World War, Maritain was an advocate for a federal reconstruction of post-war Europe. According to Maritain, the federalist way was the best approach to the German Question, because it would ensure the encapsulation of Germany in a network of states, thereby prohibiting nationalist ideologies to gain the upper hand in politics ever again. Maritain was further known for his contribution to a school of thought named personalism, which held that the human person as a relational being was the key element of the ordering of society, not the racial group or economic class to which the human being belongs. Personalist ideals greatly influenced J.H. Oldham in his development of the idea of the responsible society for the Amsterdam Assembly of 1948, which would become a key blueprint between 1948 and the early 1950s for European ecumenists.