Bernanos, Claudel, Mauriac and Maritain: a quartet not always full of Christian charity ‘A Catholic has no allies. He only has brothers’: letters shed light on four leading French writers

Authors

Eamon Maher, Technological University DublinFollow

Document Type

Article

Rights

This item is available under a Creative Commons License for non-commercial use only

Disciplines

History

Publication Details

Published online Fri, Aug 2, 2019

Reproduced with kind permission from The Irish Times

Abstract

The publication by the French Dominican publisher Cerf of the epistolary correspondence between four of France’s best known Catholic intellectuals and writers, Georges Bernanos, Paul Claudel, François Mauriac and Jacques Maritain, reveals serious rifts and, at times, a definite lack of Christian charity in the sentiments they shared with one another. The correspondence centres on Maritain’s exchanges with the other three, which is most probably due to the fact that he and his wife Raïssa were seriously revered and much consulted figures in cultural circles in France at the time when the other writers were at the peak of their powers.

Recommended Citation

Maher, E. (2019) Bernanos, Claudel, Mauriac and Maritain: a quartet not always full of Christian charity ‘A Catholic has no allies. He only has brothers’: letters shed light on four leading French writers in The Irish Times, Fri, Aug 2, 2019.