As an ardent feminist Simone de Beauvoir was in the vanguard of French intellectual life for more than forty years. Raised in a strict and highly traditional Catholic family, De Beauvoir rejected the religious and social values of her family early on and advanced a radical political and philosophical debate that was in direct opposition to the Catholic Church. This provocative, carefully argued book reveals that the woman whose most important and famous work - "The Second Sex" - was banned by the Catholic Church, had a tenacious grasp of the rudiments and refinements of Catholicism. Indeed, this was one of the foundations on which she built her philosophy. Joseph Mahon documents the formative influences of home, school, and Church on the mind of France's most famous female philosopher, novelist, and essayist. Examining her memoirs, philosophical monographs, and short stories, Mahon reveals a vocabulary that remains richly Catholic. This book offers a major contribution to feminist philosophy, ethical theory, philosophy of religion, and cultural studies.