ABSTRACT
Jacques Maritain, the eminent Roman Catholic philosopher, had such high hopes for his friend Arthur Lourie that in 1936 he boldly added him to the canon of great composers. For Maritain, Lourie was the sole musical manifestation of Neo-Thomism, a broad philosophical project that had occupied him for over two decades. As a system, Neo-Thomism attempted to solve modern philosophical and theological problems using St Thomas Aquinas's medieval theological methods. Olivier Messiaen has achieved iconic status as the twentieth century's most important Catholic composer, as well as one of the most innovative musicians of any creed, whereas the music of Arthur Lourie lives in almost total obscurity. The younger generation of Catholics to which Messiaen belonged began to interrogate the meaning of the word 'Catholic'. They rediscovered a personal dimension of Catholic faith that seemed lost on certain Church authorities.
