Popular Culture Review Vol. 13, No. 1, January 2002 | Page 117

Jacques Maritain and Medieval Studies

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those with an academic interest in medieval studies. Admittedly, Maritain saw in
the Middle Ages certain philosophical and imaginative possibilities; yes, he saw in
certain medieval thinkers (particularly Aquinas) certain moral and intellectual
potentialities. But Maritain did not believe that these potentialities were the result
of a specific social program or a set of social circumstances such as Coulton
delineates in his rather biting little essay. Maritain holds the Middle Ages in high
regard because, in this period of western history, the world was introduced to the
workings of Christian culture. Indeed, his suggestion is that the '"workings” of the
Middle Ages might well be emulated without shattering any progressivist myth
because the Christian age has brought into the world particular exigencies that
need not be recognized in order to be in effect ("Remarks at the 10th Anniversary”).
For Maritain, "it [the emerge of a New Christendom] is not a question of a material
return to the Middle Ages, but of drawing inspiration from their principles”
(Maritain, Carnet de notes^ 41).
Moral and intellectual potentialities are "latent,” for Maritain, but
actualized by Christian love— such as one finds in the medieval invention of a
Christian state, if not in the Middle Ages.^ For this reason, an appreciation and
examination of the Middle Ages becomes an integral part of Maritain’s philosophical
and cultural project. As early as 1927, in The Things That Are Not Caesar's, Maritain
observes that modem politics is founded on what can be taken from individuals
while a socially-relevant Christianity is founded on love, which can be given but
never taken away. With this simple formula, Maritain proposes to ground all
Christian inquiry and his own intellectual history in an individual’s experience of
love and law. We will soon see how Maritain identifies Dante as his inspiration for
this insight, but first it may be helpful to see the general contours of Maritain’s
thought:
— For Christian theology {Degrees o f Knowledge), the
fundamental question would be: "Is all knowledge of God
irreparably defective, lacking due proportion to the object
known and signified, in its very manner of grasping and
signifying?” (14)
—For Christian political theory {Scholasticism and Politics
[1943]), the fundamental question would be: "Why is it that
when love and holiness do not transform our human condition
and change slaves into sons of God, the Law makes many
victims?”
— For Christian metaphysics {Existence and the Existent
[1947]), the fundamental question would be: "Can the intellect,
laying hold of the intelligible, disengaging them by its own