Christianity, democracy, and Maritain: a reading of a path of meetings and retreats

Abstract

The thought of Jacques Maritain has generated strong motivations in terms of a renewal of democratic foundations over the last decades. Revisiting one of his major works, “Christianity and Democracy,” we discuss the complex relations between democracy and religion, especially between democracy and Christianity. As a result, in addition to moments of a certain commensalism between democracy and Christianity, many occasions of mutual criticism were also observed. We also explore a novel hypothesis in this debate - the possibility of democracy being perceived as a “religion” itself.