Historian of ideas and partially political theorist himself, he remained related to the Carlist version of Traditionalism and is considered one of its greatest contemporary masters.

The Canals family is among the best-known in Catalonia; it gained both recognition and position in the 18th century, upon co-foundation, taking over and later management of Fábricas de indianas [es] , one of the first major textile plants in the region.

[11] One source claims he frequented the college until 1939,[12] another one that living in the Republican-controlled Barcelona, he attended various establishments and obtained bachillerato shortly after the end of the Civil War.

[21] José María Canals Suris is active in politics related to Traditionalism; as a candidate of Comunión Tradicionalista Carlista he unsuccessfully ran for the Senate, in 2004 from Albacete[22] and in 2008 from Girona.

[23] Having graduated in Filosofía y Letras, in the early 1950s Canals decided to dedicate himself to philosophy and commenced PhD research, supervised by Jaime Bofill.

In 1965 Manuel Sacristán Luzón, increasingly acknowledged as key Marxist philosopher and suspected to be member of the clandestine Spanish Communist Party, did not get his contract renewed; it was Canals who took over his lectures.

[31] In the 1970s he co-founded Società Internazionale Tommasso d’Aquino, rising to president of its Spanish section (1981-1986) and vice-president of its international executive (1991-1997);[32] in the meantime he obtained one more PhD, in theology.

He considered the two highly inter-related and passionately pursued both, hardly adhering to dispassionate, detached teaching formula; his lectures are recorded for precise logic, but also for fervor and animation.

[37] When replacing Sacristán, Canals claimed he accepted the job "to save students from eternal fire", to which they were exposed following frequenting lectures of his predecessor.

[38] The students went on strike and Canals narrowly missed physical assault, lambasted later for "su franquista y más que autoritaria y reaccionaria presencia" and for placing a crucifix on the wall of the lecture room.

[41] During transición Canals was particularly alarmed by de-Christianization of universities and remained determined to confront the rising Marxist tide,[42] anxious that PCE infiltrated the academic realm in pursuit of its revolutionary goals.

[56] Canals’ philosophical treaty which stands out and should be listed first is definitely his Sobre la esencia del conocimiento (1987), a massive[57] study discussing epistemology from the Thomist perspective, described by some as "the book which makes history".

[62] The work which enjoyed most popularity, however, is tailored as a textbook for philosophy students; Historia de la filosofía medieval (1976) was re-issued 4 times until the early 1990s.

He perceived the latter not as a speculative exercise but as a discursive science, subject to usual rational verification procedures yet remaining in the service of Roman Catholic faith.

This was certified by the 1998 nomination to St. Thomas’ Academy[65] and the 2002 honor of commander of Ordo Sancti Gregorii Magni, both conferred upon him by John Paul II; Canals was personally appreciated by the Pope and in his writings explored a number of concepts coined earlier by Karol Wojtyła.

The work which falls into none of the fields discussed earlier is En torno al diálogo católico-protestante (1966); written in course of Vaticanum II it advanced a somewhat competitive approach towards ecumenism and claimed that stress on components unifying Christian faiths comes at a cost of de-emphasizing the core message.

Armed with his general theological vision of history,[78] Canals discusses mounting feeling of perceived discontinuity between the past and the present, mostly against the background of 18th-19th century Romance-speaking Europe, and the efforts to bridge the gap, leading to birth of Traditionalism.

[79] Its key opponent is defined as Liberal Catholicism, examined at length as it developed and adopted itself to changing political circumstances;[80] confrontation of the two is presented mostly in the Spanish setting though at times reaching also to a broader European milieu, e.g. in case of France covering also royalism of the Restoration, monarchist legitimism or Ultramontanism of the later era.

[81] Contrary to the currently prevailing view, Canals advances a thesis that the modern Catalan identity was forged as part of traditional Christian response to competitive universalist concepts gaining ground since the late 17th century and usually imported from the other side of the Pyrenees.

[90] They noted that by ignoring God and elevating the people to ultimate authority, capable of telling the good from the evil, the document advanced an unacceptable "secular totalitarianism".

[102] Canals admitted a theoretical possibility of separate Traditionalist and Carlist identities, yet he considered such an option absurd, comparable to being an Orangist Roman Catholic Irishman[103] or a Protestant Jacobite.

[112] More cautious scholars prefer to note him as involved in initiatives "linked to Carlist legitimism",[113] some settle for a general "Catholic conservative counter-revolutionary"[114] and most opt for "Traditionalist intellectual".