Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas, Volume 2

by Bernard J.F. Lonergan, Frederick E. Crowe (Editor), Robert M. Doran (Editor)

Bernard Lonergan's theological writings have influenced religious scholars ever since the first publication in the 1940s of the series of five articles which make up Word and Idea in Aquinas . These articles first appeared in Theological Studies and were subsequently republished in book form in 1967 under the present title. This volume contains a new preface by the editors and full translations of all Latin texts. Word and Idea in Aquinas is a product of Lonergan's eleven years of study of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. The work is considered by many to be a breakthrough in the history of Lonergan's theology and a foundation upon which his later contributions were constructed. Here he interprets aspects in the writing of Aquinas relevant to trinitarian theory and, as in most of Lonergan's work, one of the principal aims is to assist the reader in the search to understand the workings of the human mind. Word and Idea in Aquinas is a vital component of Lonergan's oeuvre, and of continuing relevance to trinitarian theology, Aquinas studies, and inquiries into human cognition.

Genres: Philosophy

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1967

About the author

Fr. Bernard Joseph Frances Lonergan, SJ, CC (Ph.D., Theology, Gregorian University (Rome), 1939; B.A., University of London, 1930), was an ordained Roman Catholic priest of the Jesuit order. As an economist and philosopher-theologian in the Thomist tradition, he taught at Loyola College (Montreal) (now Concordia University), Regis College (now federated within the University of Toronto), the Pontifical Gregorian University, Harvard University, and Boston College. He was named by Pope Paul VI one of the original members of the International Theological Commission.

He is the author of Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (1957) and Method in Theology (1972), which established what he called the Generalized Empirical Method (GEM). The University of Toronto Press is in process of publishing his work in a projected 25-volume collection edited by staff at the Lonergan Research Institute at Regis College.

"Lonergan is considered by many intellectuals to be the finest philosophic thinker of the 20th century."
—TIME Magazine

Reviews

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lonergan, one of the premier Catholic philosophers and educators of the 20th century, creates a Gadamerian "fusion of horizons" in this study of an aspect of Thomas Aquinas' epistemology. Lonergan presents Thomistic realism as a third-way between materialism/empiricism and idealism. This deep study of Thomas' technical vocabulary somehow also serves as a window into modern philosophical problems.