Joseph Maréchal

Joseph Maréchal (French: [maʁeʃal]; 1 July 1878 – 11 December

1944) was a Belgian Jesuit priest, philosopher, theologian and
Joseph Maréchal
psychologist. He taught at the Higher Institute of Philosophy of the
University of Leuven and was the founder of the school of thought
called transcendental Thomism, which attempted to merge the
theological and philosophical thought of St. Thomas Aquinas with
that of Immanuel Kant.

Contents
Life and thought
Main works Born 1 July 1878
Charleroi, Belgium
See also
Died 11 December 1944
References
(aged 66)
Leuven, Belgium
Life and thought Education Catholic University of
Leuven (1901–1905;
Maréchal joined the Jesuits in 1895 and after a doctorate in biology D.Sc., 1905)
at Leuven (1905) he first specialized in experimental psychology,
Era 20th-century philosophy
spending some time in Munich with Wilhelm Wundt (1911). Until
the end of his life Maréchal would say that his real interest was more Region Western philosophy
in psychology than in philosophy. School Transcendental
Thomism
Prompted by the call of Pope Leo XIII to revitalize Thomist
theology, he started studying in depth the works of St. Thomas Main Metaphysics,
Aquinas in order to understand the inner coherence of his system, interests philosophical theology
along with the works of other scholastic thinkers, modern
Influences
philosophers and scientists of the day. From this, and in particular
from Kant's transcendental idealism, emerged a new and more Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant
dynamic Thomism, recapturing the union of 'act and power' in Influenced
Aquinas. The development of his thought can be grasped in the five
Karl Rahner, Bernard Lonergan,
cahiers (see bibliography) in which, after exposing the weaknesses
Richard De Smet
of traditional Thomism, he evaluated Kant's philosophy (3rd cahier)
with whose help he proposes a modernized Thomism in the 4th and
5th cahier. The work of Maréchal had a great influence on such contemporary theologians and philosophers
as Andre Marc, Gaston Isaye, Joseph de Finance, Karl Rahner, Bernard Lonergan, Johannes Baptist Lotz,
Bernard O'Brien and Richard De Smet.

In the same way, he proceeded to study the psychology of the mystics. Until his death on 11 December 1944
he taught philosophy and experimental psychology at the Jesuit House of Studies in Leuven (St Albert of
Leuven's Philosophical and Theological College). He was a great friend of Pierre Scheuer, the Belgian Jesuit
who has been described as a metaphysician and mystic.
Main works
Maréchal, Joseph (2004). The Psychology of the Mystics. Mineola, New York: Dover
Publications. ISBN 9780486436944.
Le point de départ de la métaphysique: leçons sur le développement historique et théorique du
problème de la connaissance, 5 vols, (Bruges-Louvain, 1922–47).
Études sur le psychologie des mystiques, 2 vols, (1926, 1937) [translated as Studies in the
Psychology of the Mystics, tr. A. Thorold, (New York, 1964).
Précis d'histoire de la philosophie moderne, (Louvain, 1933).
Mélanges Joseph Maréchal, 2 vols, (Brussels / Paris, 1950).
"The Intellectual Dynamism in Objective Knowledge." Tr. Richard De Smet and others.
[Original, 'Le dynamisme intellectual dans la conaisance objective', in Revue néoscolastique
de Philosophie 28 (1927) 137–165 = Mélanges Joseph Maréchal (Brussels / Paris, 1950)
1:75–101.] Poona: De Nobili College, 1963–65. 1–37. Unpublished. Available at Jnana Deepa
Vidyapeeth Library, Pune, N13/M332.
"At the Threshold of Metaphysics: Abstraction or Intuition?" Tr. Richard De Smet and others.
[Original in Revue néoscolastique de Philosophie 31(1929) 27–52, 121–147, 309–342.]
Poona: De Nobili College, 1963–65. 38–149. Unpublished. Available at Jnana Deepa
Vidyapeeth Library, Pune, N13/M332.
"The Natural Desire for Perfect Happiness." Tr. Richard De Smet and others. [Original in
Mélanges Joseph Maréchal (Brussels / Paris, 1950) 2:323–337.] Poona: De Nobili College,
1963–65. 150–170. Unpublished. Available at Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth Library, Pune,
N13/M332.
A Maréchal Reader, ed and trans Joseph Donceel, (New York: Herder & Herder, 1970)

See also
List of Jesuit scientists
List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics

References
Casula, M, Maréchal et Kant, Rome, 1955.
Lonergan, B.F, "Metaphysics as Horizon", in Gregorianum 44 (1964) 307–318 = "Metaphysics
as Horizon," in Collection, Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan 4, ed. F.E. Crowe and R.M.
Doran (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988) 188–204.
Donceel, Joseph F., Philosophical Psychology (later titled Philosophical Anthropology), New
York, 1961.
John, Helen James, The Thomist Spectrum, (1966), pp139–49
Kristo, J., Maréchal's approach to Mysticism, Notre-Dame, 1979.
Matteo, Anthony M, Quest for the Absolute: The Philosophical Vision of Joseph Maréchal,
(1992)
McCool, Gerald A, From Unity to Pluralism, (1989), pp87–113
Savignano, A., Joseph Maréchal, filosofo della religione, Perugia, 1978.
Rieß, Klaus, Gott zwischen Begriff und Geheimnis. Zu einem Ende natürlicher Theologie als
Aufgang neuzeitlicher Religionsphilosophie, St. Ottilien, 1991.

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