Peter Maurin’s Influences

The content of Maurin’s program was not original, but rather based on large doses of…

• Thomas Aquinas
• Peter “Prince” Kropotkin
• Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
• Hillaire Belloc
• G.K. Chesterton
• Eric Gill
• Vincent McNabb
• Pope Leo XIII
• Pope Pius XI
• Luigi Sturzo

…among others.  The blending of these diverse thinkers and the merging of their ideas into a coherent worldview were indeed original.  Medieval communal anarchism, distrust of government, agrarianism, personalism, and a strong emphasis on the controlling rule of religion in society are the result.

Source: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1406141?seq=5#page_scan_tab_contents