Peter Maurin - Intellectual System

Intellectual System

Maurin's vision to transform the social order consisted of three main ideas:

1. Establishing urban houses of hospitality to care for the destitute.
2. Establishing rural farming communities to teach city dwellers agrarianism and encourage a movement back-to-the-land.
3. Setting up roundtable discussions in community centres in order to clarify thought and initiate action.

Or, as Maurin himself put it:

"Cult, Culture, and Cultivation

When the Irish scholars

decided to lay the foundations

of medieval Europe,

they established:

Centers of Thought

in all the cities of Europe

as far as Constantinople,

where people

could look for thought

so they could have light.

Houses of Hospitality

where Christian charity

were exemplified.

Agricultural Centers

where they combined

(a) Cult—

that is to say Liturgy

(b) with Culture

that is to say Literature

(c) with Cultivation—

that is to say Agriculture. "