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On the Church of Christ : prefact
Jacques Maritain Center
 
Jacques Maritain
ON THE CHURCH OF CHRIST
The Person of the Church and Her Personnel
Translated by Joseph W. Evans
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESSNOTRE DAME - LONDON
Copyright © 1973 byUniversity of Notre Dame PressNotre Dame, Indiana 46556
Contents
http://www.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/otcoc.htm (1 of 2)27-Sep-05 20:57:03
 
On the Church of Christ : prefact
 Jacques Maritain Center:On the Church of Christ 
Preface
By what right has a layman lacking in authority to treat of such matters (he is not a theologian) venturedto write these pages on the Church of Christ, which is a mystery of faith? I reply that the sole authorityone may avail oneself of in speaking to others is that of truth; and that in a profoundly troubled historicalmoment it is doubtless permissible to an old Christian philosopher who has thought about the mystery of the Church for sixty years to bear on it the testimony of his faith and of his meditation.There is however a better reply and one of greater bearing: it is that philosophy, which even as
ancilla
of theology is never in a servile condition (it is rather an "auxiliary" -- on the side of mere natural reason --than a "servant" of theology), has not only to furnish to the latter a metaphysics (I mean a metaphysicsfounded in truth); it has also for function, -- at least if in the head of the philosopher it is itself strengthened by faith, -- to enter, yes, onto the proper terrain of the
sacra doctrina
in order to make thereitself an effort of reason and to propose there eventually to the competent doctors new views, I say bytitle of 
research worker 
, and of 
research worker 
freer than the theologian himself: for it suffices then forthe philosopher to be suitably acquainted with theological questions and theological controversies,without however being charged himself, as is the theologian, with the concern for the elucidations whichthe historical exegesis of the texts of Scripture can furnish, and with the weight of a whole long patristicand conciliar tradition to be known in detail, to be scrutinized and discussed, so as to order organicallyand to cause to progress the treasure of truth which it transmits to us (I do not speak of the appreciablenumber of pseudotheologians who employ themselves today to destroy it).The philosopher leaves to the proper knowledge of the theologian the great interpretative andconstructive work in question. He profits by the fruits of this knowledge. But in his own manner of thinking, the mind with its exigencies and being with its secrets alone face each other; the reason of theChristian philosopher is alone, in order to reflect on them, in the presence of the lofty realities which arepresented to him by the theologian. That is why I have said that in the labor of research he is more freethan the latter, to whom he proposes views which it belongs to theology to judge in the final analysis.Let us add, with respect to the present work, that a philosophical approach demands that one regard themystery of the Church as an object placed before the mind and which one tries to describe. In order toundertake to make thus the portrait of a mystery, it was necessary to be an old philosopher resistingbadly the attraction of risks (of the beautiful risks). At least he is without too many illusions abouthimself. To tell the truth, this book has been written by an ignorant one for ignorant ones like himself,
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