With clarity and refined arguments, Walter Schultz uses Maritain's principles and interprets them to speak to current social and political situations, beyond modern and postmodern options. For some, Maritain may be completely passé. But Walter Schultz demonstrates the relevance of Maritain's intuitions to tackle individualism and the distortions and pathologies it induces, and thus proposes something akin to a 'critical maritainian theory.' In a world polarized and lacking nuances, this book offers pacifying avenues for respect and recognition both of persons and of communities.

Maxime Allard, Dominican University College, Canada

Beset by authoritarianisms of the right and of the left, how is a thoughtful citizen to respond today? In this engaging and compelling study, Walter Schultz turns to the 20th-century Christian thinker Jacques Maritain for an analysis of what underlies autocratic totalitarianism and an argument for a personalist, democratic alternative. Schultz's careful account of Maritain's philosophy and his application of its insights to the contemporary world provide a powerful reminder of the centrality of the dignity of the human person and the need for a renewed culture of encounter.

William Sweet, FRSC, St Francis Xavier University, Canada

Walter Schultz has written an important study that explains the enduring relevance of the perennial philosophy and democratic politics of Jacques Maritain. As authoritarian nationalism asserts its will in the 21st century by misusing the power of the human person's spiritual yearnings, Schultz explains how Maritain's democratic politics offer a better option than either the market logic of neoliberalism or the totalitarian logic of authoritarianism. Maritain's spiritual defense of the person and the common good continues to resonate in the 21st century as Schultz shows us the better path of freedom, human rights, and personalist democracy.

Christopher S. Morrissey, Trinity Western University