Deacon James H. Toner: The Core of Integralism

Integralism seems to be the “in” topic among Catholic intellectuals today. Ahmari, Bouyer, Coulombe, Deneen, Douthat, Dreher, Feser, Fimister and Crean, French, George, Hahn and McGinley, Hanby, Kwasniewski, Maritain, Miller, Murray, Pappin, Pink, Rawls, Reilly, Reno, Schindler, Spadaro, Stannus, Tollefsen, Trabbic, Vermeule, Voegelin, Waldstein, Weigel, Wiker—this is only a partial list of (mostly) current analysts dissecting the phenomenon of Integralism.

Father Waldstein’s definition is this: “Catholic Integralism is a tradition of thought that, rejecting the liberal separation of politics from concern with the end of human life, holds that political rule must order man to his final goal. Since, however, man has both a temporal and an eternal end, integralism holds that there are two powers that rule him: a temporal power and a spiritual power. And since man’s temporal end is subordinated to his eternal end, the temporal power must be subordinated to the spiritual power.”  …

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