Introduction: Jacques Maritain and Contemporary Challenges to Democracy.

Introducing the collection of articles regarding Jacques Maritain and his relevance for challenges to democracy today, this article describes the complexity and some of the main themes of his intellectual journey. Maritain played a major role in the development of Catholic social teaching on democracy, and can provide moral and spiritual grounding for a renewal of democracy now. He articulates the moral value of democracy as the form of politics that best allows Christians to live out love of neighbor and enemy in concrete ways, while still making an appropriate distinction between the spiritual and temporal spheres. Articles in this volume examine the implications of the friendship between Maritain and Saul Alinsky, William Cavanaugh's interpretation of Maritain's influence (with a response from Cavanaugh himself), and reflections upon how we can critically appropriate the thought of Maritain in the contemporary context, fifty years after his death. The introduction concludes with words Maritain addressed to US Catholics in 1939. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]