On the Importance of Christianity to Politics

The point is that right political experience cannot develop in people unless passions and reason are oriented by a solid basis of collective virtues: by faith and honor and thirst for justice. The point is that without the evangelical instinct and the spiritual potential of a living Christianity, political judgment and political experience are ill-protected against temptations born of selfishness and fear; without courage, compassion for mankind, and the spirit of sacrifice, the advance toward a historical ideal of generosity and fraternity is not conceivable. -- Jacques Maritain