The Integral Humanism of
Jacques Maritain
Sidney
Hook
CATHOLICISM IS THE OLDEST
and greatest totalitarian movement
in history. Other totalitarian movements have borrowed from it
even when they have fulminated against it. Its essential totali·
tarian character is at times obscured, particularly when it finds
itself in conflict with the newer movements which must consolidate
their power at its expense. Compare it with Fascism, Nazism,
Stalinism. In every case the
mystique
is different; but in every
case we find present not merely dogmas, sacred and profane, rituals
of canonization and excommunication, but the desire to revolu–
tionize "the soul" of man through the directing force of a highly
organized minority, using those three great instruments described
by Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor -
miracle, mystery,
and
authority
-
to order a society in behalf of the interests of a
bureaucratic hierarchy.
Miracle
in the form of bread in return
for absolute submission;
mystery
in the form of doctrine to con–
ceal the true source of the bread and the exploitation of those who
make it;
authority
in the form of sacred script, a leader and the
secular arm to make doctrinal mysteries acceptable.
The greatness of Catholicism as a movement, leaving aside
the historical reasons for its varying fortunes, consists in its theor–
etical adaptability and practical resourcefulness. The extent of its
theoretical adaptability may be gauged by the fact that in its
struggles against other forms of totalitarianism, it sometimes
assumes the vestment of ideological liberalism even though its
authoritative spokesmen have on occasions held that the logical
consequence of doctrinal liberalism is Bolshevism. Despite Jef–
ferson's outspoken Deism, Catholic writers insist that his inspira–
tion was Thomist. And if we are to judge by the writings of the
outspoken apologists of Catholicism in Europe and America, they
are just as ready, if necessity arise, to baptize Marx as they once
baptized Aristotle.
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