Poetry, Beauty, and Contemplation: The Complete Aesthetics of Jacques Maritain

9. Maritain on Contemplation and Beauty

139 Nine Maritain on Contemplation and Beauty \ Contemplatives and [P]oets understand each other. —Jacques Maritain Having completed our discussion of Poetry and the way that it operates both in creativity and in the perception of beauty, we should note that this type of human knowing represents an overlooked, yet much needed addition to the canon of systematic epistemology, particularly within the Thomist tradition. Of the following classic Thomist epistemology texts,1 none makes any mention of a knowledge, like Poetry , that is intuitive, connatural, nonconceptual, and pierced by significant or spiritualized emotion: Regis, Brennan, Klubertanz, O’Neill, Donceel, Royce, Gardeil, Van Steenberghen, Phillips, Peifer, and others .2 Were this insight Maritain’s sole contribution to Thomistic episte1 . L.N.Regis, O.P., Epistemology (New York: Macmillan, 1959); Robert Edward Brennan, O.P., Thomistic Psychology (New York: Macmillan, 1941); George P. Klubertanz , S.J., The Philosophy of Human Nature (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1953); Reginald F. O’Neill, S.J., Theories of Knowledge (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1960); J. F. Donceel, S.J., Philosophical Anthropology (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1967); James E. Royce, S.J., Man and His Nature (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961); H. D. Gardeil , O.P., Introduction to the Philosophy of St.Thomas Aquinas: Vol. 3. Psychology (St.Louis , Mo.: B.Herder Book Co., 1956); Fernand Van Steenberghen, Epistemology (New York: Joseph F. Wagner, 1949); R.P. Phillips, Modern Thomistic Philosophy, vol. 1 (Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1948); John Frederick Peifer, The Mystery of Knowledge (Albany, N.Y.: Magi Books, 1964; originally published as The Concept in Thomism [New York: Bookman Associates/Record Press, 1952]). 2. Frederick D.Wilhelmsen, Man’s Knowledge of Reality (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1965); Peter Hoenen, S.J., Reality and Judgment According to St.Thomas (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1952); Joseph D.Hassett, S.J., Robert A.Mitchell, S.J, and 140 [ Contemplation and Beauty mology, his contribution would already be significant. And yet, there is more. For Maritain is not only a great commentator and innovator; he is also an astute pathfinder. In addition to the carefully articulated and brilliantly defended positions of traditional Thomist epistemology, his writings also contain a number of new and original insights. Many of these advances, like Poetry and Poetic Knowledge, were developed by Maritain himself; others await their full development by his students. Since his writings are copious and their topics expansive, we can expect that the full implications to be drawn from them will, like the mining of all great works, be forthcoming for quite some time. This and the final chapter constitute but one such attempt at extracting some ore of insight from Maritain’s writings. For just as with Poetry and beauty, so too we find, scattered throughout Maritain’s discussions about contemplation, essential insights that confirm that a reconstructed notion of Poetic Contemplation is a legitimate extension of Maritain’s epistemology. In this chapter, we will examine Maritain ’s understanding of contemplation in general and its relation to beauty in particular. On Natural and Supernatural Contemplation in General Poetry . . . is spiritual nourishment; but of a savor which has been created and which is insufficient. There is but one eternal nourishment. Unhappy you who think yourselves ambitious, and who whet your appetites for anything less than the three Divine Persons and the humanity of Christ. It is a mortal error to expect from [P]oetry the supersubstantial nourishment of man.3 Although Poetry is spiritual nourishment, this passage clearly distinguishes it from that spiritual nourishment which alone provides Donald J.Monan, S.J., The Philosophy of Human Knowing (Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1953); Cornelius Ryan Fay and Henry F. Tiblier, S.J., Epistemology (Milwaukee : Bruce Publishing Company, 1967). 3. Jacques Maritain, Art and Scholasticism, 132. Contemplation and Beauty \ 141 eternal sustenance: the indwelling of the Holy Spirit leading to sanctity and the beatific vision. As it is, Maritain has no developed discussion of aesthetic contemplation, and there is no special treatment of a purely natural contemplation either. In the vast majority of cases where Maritain uses the term “contemplation” without adjectival qualification, he uses it as the equivalent of supernatural contemplation. As indicated by the opening quotation, for Maritain, nothing, not Poetry, not metaphysics , not philosophical contemplation, takes the place of that union and beatitude given in supernatural contemplation and divine grace. Recalling Maritain’s biography from chapter 1, this commitment to a sanctified life of prayer...