Liberal education in Jacques Maritain

Abstract

In this article, we will examine Jacques Maritain’s conception of “liberal” education, an exponent of European Catholic thought who did not measure efforts for advocating an education in which Christian and liberal ideals remained linked. Attentive to the directions of his time, he projected, in his pedagogical proposal, a new education, but also elaborated his opinion on the rapid abandonment of Christian ideals. His religious influence did not prevent him from perceiving the changes taking place in the society, which were making the Catholic Church no more the epicenter. We will identify an interlocution of ideas for a new education in his concept of liberal education. A central source is the work Education at the Crossoroads, the result of conferences between 1943 and 1955 in the United States, which allows us to analyze how this intellectual problematized pedagogical questions taking the Catholic precepts as a central reference, while not disregarding new proposals for education.

Keywords: Jacques Maritain, liberal education, Catholic Church.