Approaches to God

by Jacques Maritain

English, French (translation)

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Metaphysics

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

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

[Zachary Horn]

I quite enjoyed this little read. The opening chapter on man's pre-philosophical knowledge of God was thought provoking, and Maritain's treatment of Aquinas's 5 ways was very helpful. I also found Maritain's writing style both elegant and beautiful.

That said, Maritain's proposed 6th way felt unconvincing, or perhaps more charitably, non-unique in its basic sense and unpersuasive in its original elements. At bottom, it seems to me the proof can be bluntly summarized as "I am a thinking self aware being, but a being who at sometime was not as I am now. Therefore, I must have participated (even analogically) in some Being prior to myself before my own being came to be. Therefore a First Being exists." This seems to contribute little new to the proofs of God, as it reduces nearly to an argument of necessary causes, which hardly constitutes a new proof. What is perhaps unique is the introspective analysis of selfhood as being ontologically sourced in something prior, but in this I think there is some difficulty in the framing. For one, I think it may be the case that Maritain's 6th way misses the distinction between selfhood and consciousness, and inadvertently toggles between these as though they are interchangeable in the proof. The warrant of the proof is grounded in self-awareness/consciousness (i.e. I know that I am, but also that I once was not) which resolves the resulting contraction (being recognizing the apparent absurdity of having at some time not been) through assuming participatory life (though not self consciousness) in the Being of another. But this subtle shift swaps the terms in the proofs for one another. It is not my selfhood that is involved, but my consciousness of that selfhood, which cannot be maintained in the participation of another's being. Where, then, did my consciousness come from? This question remains unresolved by Maritain's 6th way, in my view.

[Daniel Arter]

Quick read; could be useful as a quick reference book. For instance, Maritain’s brief description of Aquinas’ 5 ways can be beneficial (if for no other reason than for providing a simple synopsis of Aquinas’ 5 ways). His sixth way didn’t seem beneficial to me.

[Matt Pitts]

A brief and interesting look at various ways people approach the knowledge of God. He includes Aquinas’s Five Ways (and helpfully explains them), but goes far beyond them as well. I did not find his ‘Sixth Way’ compelling (at least on this first read), but I did find his articulation of ‘prephilosophic knowledge of God’ and the relationship between poetry and knowing God especially helpful.

[Kevin Megill]

Talks about proofs of God's existence.

It walks through Aquinas's Five Ways. I think it's a superb explanation of Aquinas. It takes each proof and uses modern language and ideas to make it clear. It was logically sharp in a really satisfying way. There were parts I didn't quite get.

Definitely worth re-reading from time to time.

[Paul Womack]

Not an easy read, for me, sadly. But as Maritain is on my reading list for 2021, I am reading his shorter works and will re-read and process and re-read. I am not persuaded his erudite exegesis of reason takes us to God. Yet, the thoughtful approach of Maritain deserves my attentiveness.

[David]

This book is the apotheosis of and idea and that you need not right hundreds and hundreds of pages an order to effectively posit a philosophical argument.

[J. Robert]

Really great little book. It's not easy reading like C.S. Lewis but it does provide an accessible introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas' Quinque viae. Maritain first goes over a pre-philosophic argument for God based on existence. The human being knows it exists but also that it won't always exist (nothingness), leading it to the knowledge that there must be existence without nothingness. This being without nothingness must come before being with nothingness and so we arrive at an intuitive understanding of God's existence. He then presents St. Thomas Aquinas' Quinque viae, surveys the objections to them and relates them to one another. This makes up the bulk of the book and is some of the more dense material. Following this, Maritain proposes a sixth way to God through human intuition before finishing off with approaches to God which are not philosophical but can be valuable in supplementing the philosophical proofs.

Much of Approaches to God presumes the reader has a basic understanding of philosophy and uses terminology which might otherwise be foreign. It's definatly academic in orientation, but if you're interested in getting into Thomistic philosophy and especially the neo-Thomistic tradition it's a good place to start. It also helps to situate the ontological basis used by Maritain in his normative political works.