Abstract
Jacques Maritain strove to reconcile his faith's precepts and his “fear of freedom” with the “climat historique” of the modern world. He tried to define and to valorize the new place of faith and the Church in the contemporary secular order, but refused to accord any special right or advantage to any one denomination. Although he considered cooperation between Church and the body politic as essential, his “philosophie personnaliste” was opposed to state paternalism, valuing instead the vitality and tension of particular groups. His attempts to find a way between the radical approach of religious conviction and the necessity of moving with the times often disconcerted those who could not identify in his philosophy the ideological oppositions by which they defined themselves.