St. Thomas and the Problem of Evil

The Aquinas Lecture in Philosophy #3

by Jacques Maritain

Book by Maritain, Jacques

Genres: Philosophy, Religion

46 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1942

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

[Joshua C(himpius) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short lecture but is an excellent starting point for the problem of evil. Maritain successfully lays out a good defence and theodicy based on Thomistic metaphysics. This is the sort of book that I will need to reread and he has made me eager to read De Malo by Aquinas himself.

Maritain's answer to the problem of evil is that to increase the good of creation God must create creatures differentiated by negations of good throughout tiers. According to Maritain and it seems Aquinas, if God were to make only creations without negation then he might as well only create one as duplicates of the same level of good which don't the increase overall good. Whilst a negation is not in itself evil lower level negations do lead to evil in order to create those further goods. Whilst these evils exist God still has an obligation to restore and destroy all the evils and this promise is fullfilled in the incarnation. He also has some cool arguments for free will thrown in. I reccomend this to anyone who has an interest in Thomistic metaphysics or the problem of evil.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent lecture on Aquinas' teaching on the problem of evil. It's also perfect companion reading if you are studying predestination as a student of St Thomas, as there is a section in the end where Maritain ties it all together in light of the individual soul's reception or refusal of sufficient grace. Helps you to get a fresh look at the mystery of predestination, if you've been studying it for a while, but is 100% worth reading for its own merit as well. Nowhere else have I found a summary of St Thomas' thought on a given subject that was so concise yet thorough (and so necessary, since Aquinas seldom gathered all his thoughts into one place on a question so vast and troubling as the problem of evil).

[Abduco Chimpo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book and definitely answered a lot of questions relating to the subject but not entirely all I had, but the pints made in the books are very sweeping statements, not specifically focused on certain evils, so I guess you can interpret for yourself what comes from evil based on what is written. Almost worth reading twice just to pick up anything I may have missed. I found the writing style a bit harder to read, might be due to translation and/or writing style I guess. Still a very good short book and would recommend.

[Erik]

Recommended by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, Chapter 10, as one of Eight Books on Evil and Suffering.

[Laura Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short treatise expanding the causality for evil and how it relates to human nature.

[Kyle McManamy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best and shortest treatises on the problem of evil I've read. Maritain's explanation of why the metaphysics of evil reveals its monstrosity is powerful. I will review this again to make sure I don't leave too much insight behind.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read.