Jacques Maritain

Jacques Maritain was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised as a Protestant, he became an agnostic before converting to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive St. Thomas Aquinas for modern times, and was influential in the development and drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Pope Paul VI presented his Message to Men of Thought and of Science at the close of Vatican II to Maritain, his longtime friend and mentor. Maritains interest and works spanned many aspects of philosophy, including aesthetics, political theory, philosophy of science, metaphysics, the nature of education, liturgy and ecclesiology.

Maritain was born in Paris, the son of Paul Maritain, who was a lawyer, and his wife Genevive Favre, the daughter of Jules Favre, and was reared in a liberal Protestant milieu. He was sent to the Lyce HenriIV. Later, he attended the Sorbonne, studying the natural sciences chemistry, biology and physics.

Source: Wikipedia