3rd Collection: Papers by Bernard J.F. Lonergan, S.J.

by Bernard J.F. Lonergan

A Third Collection, prepared for the Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan by editors Robert M. Doran and John D. Dadosky, is a helpful companion to volumes four and thirteen in the series. The volume contains fifteen papers, written between 1974 and 1982, and includes some of his most important shorter writings such as "Prolegomena to the Study of the Emerging Religious Consciousness of Our Time" and "Natural Right and Historical Mindedness." The relevant archival entries are specified, so that readers can consult them. The papers in this volume rehearse in a new key the themes of a lifetime. Without in any way going back on the major emphases of Lonergan's early work—cognitional theory and then the exploration of a fourth, existential level of consciousness—they are focused more on love and on the movement from above downwards in consciousness. Community is emphasized as the context and the fruit of the emergence of authentic subjects.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

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

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection contains some of the later aspects of Lonergan's thought, showing the direction that he was moving in after writing Method in Theology. Since he also includes a good deal of reflection on cognitional theory in these essays, they show how, as he explicitly says at least once, he was moving toward work on theological method all along but Insight couldn't possibly be made any longer to cover that subject. From where he was when he wrote Method, he then moved toward a good deal of reflection on inter-religious dialogue and the role of religious studies -- issues that repeatedly arise in these essays. Also, as in Method, he adds moral and religious concerns (and calls to conversion) to the intellectual conversion that he had addressed in Insight. Because the essays often cover almost the whole span of Lonergan's thought on philosophy and theology, this volume is quite helpful for both beginners and more experienced readers of Lonergan.