Christianity and Democracy, the Rights of Man and Natural Law

As this important work reveals, the philosophy of Jacques Maritain on natural law and human rights is complemented by and can only be properly understood in the light of his teaching on Christianity and democracy and their relationship. Maritain takes pains to point out that Christianity cannot be made subservient to any political form or regime, that democracy is linked to Christianity and not the other way around, and that every just regime, such as the classic forms of monarchy, aristocracy and republic, is compatible with Christianity and in it a person is able to achieve some measure of fulfillment even in the temporal order.

At the same time he argues his distinctive thesis that personalist or organic democracy provides a fuller measure of freedom and fulfillment and that it emerges or begins to take shape under the inspiration of the Gospel. Even the modern democracies we do in fact have, with all their weaknesses, represent an historic gain for the person and they spring, he urges, from the very Gospel they so wantonly repudiate