Book contents
- Christianity and the Future of Welfare
- Reviews
- Christianity and the Future of Welfare
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 What Has Christianity to Do with the Welfare State?
- Chapter 2 William Temple and the Origins of the ‘Welfare-State’
- Chapter 3 Jacques Maritain and the Right to Welfare
- Chapter 4 John Paul II and the Social Assistance State
- Chapter 5 Rowan Williams and the Big Society
- Chapter 6 A Theological Vision of Welfare
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 3 - Jacques Maritain and the Right to Welfare
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 September 2026
Book contents
- Christianity and the Future of Welfare
- Reviews
- Christianity and the Future of Welfare
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 What Has Christianity to Do with the Welfare State?
- Chapter 2 William Temple and the Origins of the ‘Welfare-State’
- Chapter 3 Jacques Maritain and the Right to Welfare
- Chapter 4 John Paul II and the Social Assistance State
- Chapter 5 Rowan Williams and the Big Society
- Chapter 6 A Theological Vision of Welfare
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Jacques Maritain brought to bear a well-developed concept of theocentric humanism on his understanding of the proper function of the state. Maritain conceived persons as individuals but as individuals that were made persons by means of freedom, communication, and gift. He deployed this theological anthropology in particular to delegitimise those conceptions of the state that were dominant in the 1930s and 40, namely liberal, capitalist, nationalist, and socialist/ communist ones. In their place, and in light of his theological anthropology, he advocated a state that was mandated to serve the "temporal common good". In practice, this oriented him, albeit tentatively, towards a particular understanding of the state’s responsibility for the provision of welfare, namely a ‘personalistic pluralism’ in which the state stood simultaneously as broker and regulator of a socialised economy and civil society, and as guarantor of personal, civil and social rights.
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- Christianity and the Future of Welfare , pp. 69 - 95Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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