Peguy the Paradox

Extract

France is reawakening. Not the France of Voltaire, but of Ste Jeanne d’Arc, not the France of Rousseau’s ‘Social Contract’, but of Péguy’s Christian social contract, the contract of universal brotherhood and charity. Charles Péguy was the day-star of that reawakening. None better than he understood the past and present of France, and none was better equipped to reconcile them. With reason he urged his fellowcountrymen to recall the soul of then race: ‘Nous sommes une veille race de moines, d’apôtres, de soldats. de maîtres d’oeuvres’. His socialism was not the socialism of Fourier and Saint Simon but of St Francis of Assisi and Ste Jeanne d’Arc. a socialism which is the very antithesis of that propounded by the German Jew. Marx, a socialism to which France, if we read the signs of the times aright, is returning. The socialism that best accords with the mind and soul of France is the charity of her saints, such as St Vincent de Paul. It would seem to be providential that Péguy was sent to lead the spirit of France, essentially Catholic and chivalrous, to new dimensions of Christian social justice.