Liberty, Wisdom, and Grace: Thomism and Democratic Political Theory

Portada
Lexington Books, 2002 - 314 páginas
Twentieth-century French philosophers Jacques Maritain and Yves R. Simon pioneered new approaches to understanding and defending political democracy in the wake of two world wars. Rather than break from a religious tradition that seemed to struggle against modernity and certain forms of democratic theory and practice, these thinkers instead looked back to the philosophy of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas to propel Catholic political philosophy forward. The profound influence of Maritain and Simon is manifest in the dramatic achievements of Vatican II and in the work of the scholars of political philosophy who learned from them. John P. Hittinger, one of the finest of these scholars, provides in Liberty, Wisdom, and Grace a comprehensive survey of the Thomists' contributions to contemporary political thought as well as a detailed analysis of their approach to democracy. Hittinger treats criticism of Maritain, including the work of Catholic political writer Aurel Kolnai, and discusses the alternative democratic visions of John Locke and David Richards. His portraits of thinkers who have wrestled with democracy in the Thomist tradition, such as Leo Strauss and John Paul II, are sensitive and engaging. Addressing questions of religion and philosophy broadly understood, the essays collected here offer a searching examination of democratic theory in the modern age.

Dentro del libro

Contenido

The Political Philosophy of Jacques Maritain
3
On Virtue with Genius The Achievement of Yves R Simon
21
Jacques Maritain and Yves R Simons Use of Thomas Aquinas in Their Defense of Liberal Democracy
35
Maritains Evaluation of Bourgeois Liberalism
61
Three Philosophies of Human Rights Locke Richards and Maritain
73
Why Locke Rejected an Ethics of Virtue and Turned to Utility
87
The Two Lockes On the Foundation of Liberty in Locke
97
David A J Richards Liberalism of the Autonomous Person
129
John Paul II and the Exorcism of Descartes Ghost
189
Maritain on the Intuition of Being
203
Marion Montgomery and the Poets Recovery of Being
213
Newman Theology and the Crisis in Liberal Education
231
James V Schall on Faith Reason and Politics
267
Maritain on the Cooperation of Church and State
275
Selected Bibliography of Maritain Pieper and Simon
303
Index
307

Approaches to Democratic Equality
143
Aurel Kolnai and the Metaphysics of Political Conservatism
163
About the Author
313
Derechos de autor

Otras ediciones - Ver todas

Términos y frases comunes

Acerca del autor (2002)

John P. Hittinger is Provost and Academic Dean of St Mary's College of Ave Maria University. He is the editor of Reassessing the Liberal State: Reading Maritain's Man and the State (with Timothy Fuller, 2001) and Liberalism at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Contemporary Liberal Thought and its Critics (with Christopher Wolfe, Rowman and Littlefield, 1994).

Información bibliográfica