Defending Maritain on Church and State from the Perspective of the Nature–Grace Principle

Abstract: Every Catholic theologian is aware of the Grundaxiom that grace does not destroy nature but, rather, presupposes and perfects it by healing and elevating it. However, it seems that many forgot to pay attention to the implications of this principle for certain debates in recent centuries, such as what ought to be the proper relationship between the Church, primarily considered in terms of its hierarchical authority, and civil society (especially, the modern nation-state). Leaving aside the details of the relevant debates in political philosophy and theology as well as the polemics regarding interpretation of the Second Vatican Council, this essay purports to make a simple application of this nature–grace principle (as found in perennial Christian intellectual tradition) to the project of reconciling the development of secular society with a theology that maintains the essential rights of the Church in the world, which characterized much of Jacques Maritain’s career. In response to Thomas Pink’s critique especially, I defend Maritain’s pertinent proposal on the basis of the view that ecclesiastical and civil realities ought to be distinguished and related to each other in a way that mirrors the relationship between the supernatural and natural orders of reality as such.