Prayer and Intelligence

by Jacques Maritain, Raïssa Maritain, Algar Thorold (Translator)

Prayer and Intelligence is a practical book about mental prayer and how to pray. It is also a book about the intellectual life. How does our intellectual search for God influence our life of prayer and how does the discipline of a life of prayer act as the necessary grounding for a profound and sustained search for the truth? In the pages of this book, philosophy and the spiritual life intertwine and strengthen each other.

Genres: Religion, Catholic, Spirituality, Philosophy

56 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1938

About the author

T. S. Eliot once called Jacques Maritain "the most conspicuous figure and probably the most powerful force in contemporary philosophy." His wife and devoted intellectual companion, Raissa Maritain, was of Jewish descent but joined the Catholic church with him in 1906. Maritain studied under Henri Bergson but was dissatisfied with his teacher's philosophy, eventually finding certainty in the system of St. Thomas Aquinas. He lectured widely in Europe and in North and South America, and lived and taught in New York during World War II. Appointed French ambassador to the Vatican in 1945, he resigned in 1948 to teach philosophy at Princeton University, where he remained until his retirement in 1953. He was prominent in the Catholic intellectual resurgence, with a keen perception of modern French literature. Although Maritain regarded metaphysics as central to civilization and metaphysically his position was Thomism, he took full measure of the intellectual currents of his time and articulated a resilient and vital Thomism, applying the principles of scholasticism to contemporary issues. In 1963, Maritain was honored by the French literary world with the national Grand Prize for letters. He learned of the award at his retreat in a small monastery near Toulouse where he had been living in ascetic retirement for some years. In 1967, the publication of "The Peasant of the Garonne" disturbed the French Roman Catholic world. In it, Maritain attacked the "neo-modernism" that he had seen developing in the church in recent decades, especially since the Second Vatican Council. According to Jaroslav Pelikan, writing in the Saturday Review of Literature, "He laments that in avant-garde Roman Catholic theology today he can 'read nothing about the redeeming sacrifice or the merits of the Passion.' In his interpretation, the whole of the Christian tradition has identified redemption with the sacrifice of the cross. But now, all of that is being discarded, along with the idea of hell, the doctrine of creation out of nothing, the infancy narratives of the Gospels, and belief in the immortality of the human soul." Maritain's wife, Raissa, also distinguished herself as a philosophical author and poet. The project of publishing Oeuvres Completes of Jacques and Raissa Maritain has been in progress since 1982, with seven volumes now in print.

Reviews

[Ben Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounding up. A worthy picture of the Christian life as experienced by two of the great minds and souls of the twentieth century. At the same time, however, I am simply not a Thomist and all my Lutheran instincts rebel against the holding up as the center of the Christian life the contemplation of God in His Divine Essence rather than the reception of God's gifts in/with/through His revelation of Himself in Incarnate Word. Further, to those who are interested in the riches of the Roman contemplative tradition, I would urge them first to plumb the well from which the Maritain's draw. Begin with St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, and Thomas á Κempis - this selection of essays is a good responsive commentary, but is definitely downstream of the classic texts.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is, further, a special relation between the intellectual life and the life of prayer in this sense, that prayer demands of the soul that she should leave the region of sensory images for the sphere of the Pure Intelligible and what lies beyond, while the operation of the intelligence grows more perfect in proportion to its emancipation from sensory images.1



of ejaculatory prayers, the habitual use of which enables the soul to retain the presence of God, and partly compensates for the drawbacks of intellectual work, which is absorbing by nature.
According to Cassian, Abbot Isaac held as a very precious secret of the spiritual life-"received by tradition from the most ancient Fathers and only to be revealed to a small number of those who desire it with ardor". -the habit of repeating on every occasion the verse of the psalms, Deus, in adjutorium meum intende, Domine ad adjuvandum me festina, for the purpose of maintaining the soul in the presence and thought of God.



"The prayer of the heart or of the spirit (which we shall call 'unconscious' prayer because it is made without reflection *Be and without our attention's being actually fixed on it) can and fec should be continuous throughout one's life. The reason for this distinction is that, although we cannot fix our mind on two things at the same time nor continue to think always, we can love always.... "What does it matter if our mind and senses are occupied with a thousand different things? Our heart is elsewhere, fixed on God
we do and think, we do through that everything Him, in Him and for Him.. Who does not see that this is possible, and very possible? Do we not see that, even in the natural order, when the heart is dominated by great love, no matter what the person does, his entire soul and life are on what he loves and not on what he does, though he may apply to his work all his mind and attention? If natural love does this, how much more should divine love.

[Christopher Pokorny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise essay on the spiritual life, particularly on the intellect and prayer. Maritain roots this writing in Thomisitc theology and provides a straight forward reminder of how contemplation (reflection) is the means of doing spiritual work (prayer) and doing intellectual work (philosophy). He then provides a framework of how to contemplate more effectively, rooted in the scriptures with observations by the Saints. This served as a refreshing and enlightening reminder that prayer is something we seemingly already do. In this text Maritain helps remind the reader that our focus and direction of prayer and reflection is to be oriented toward God.

[Jan Kubiznak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Náročnější esej o kontemplativní modlitbě. Na jednu stranu jakoby byla napsaná pro začátečníky, na druhou dost komplikovaná. Asi bych doporučil tomu, kdo má hodně (spirituálně) načteno, ale nedaří se mu to uvádět do praxe. Pár zajímavých postřehů, ale nic převratného.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, concise and wonderful.