A Second Collection

by Bernard J.F. Lonergan, William F.J. Ryan (Editor), Bernard J. Tyrrell (Editor)

This collection of essays, addresses, and one interview come from the years 1966-73, a period during most of which Bernard Lonergan was at work completing his Method in Theology. The eighteen chapters cover a wide spectrum of interest, dealing with such general topics as 'The Absence of God in Modern Culture' and 'The Future of Christianity,' narrowing down through items such as ' Today's Issue' and more specialized theological and philosophical studies, to one on his own community in the church ('The Response of the Jesuit ...') and the illuminating comment on his great work Insight ('Insight Revisited'). This book is a reprint of the first edition published in 1974, edited by William F.J. Ryan and Bernard J. Tyrrell of Gonzaga University, Spokane. The editors contribute an important introduction in which they emphasize that Lonergan's central concern is intentionality analysis, and that two major themes run through the first, the clear emergence of the primacy of the fourth level of human consciousness, the existential level, the level of evaluation and love; secondly, the significance of historical consciousness. These papers, then, besides the unity they possess by appearing within the same seven year period, share a specific unity of theme. Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984), a professor of theology, taught at Regis College, Harvard University, and Boston College. An established author known for his Insight and Method in Theology , Lonergan received numerous honorary doctorates, was a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1971 and was named as an original members of the International Theological Commission by Pope Paul VI.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy

299 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

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

[Ejansand · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to 3.5 for me, if we’re really sticking close to the rating.

This set of essays gives a decent introduction to the trajectory of Lonergan’s thought, and so it was recommended to me as the best way to begin reading Lonergan’s corpus. He’s brilliant, no doubt, but I do find myself at odds with his modern bent.

But the value lies in his ceaseless struggle to actually figure out the problems of modernism and Catholic thought, to clarify them and the planes they operate on, and so to (hopefully, painstakingly) discovery some sort of platform for dialogue and discussion between the two. So, while these essay might feel very modern, they actually try to be “meta” in the sense that they come after modern culture and peer beyond divisiveness therein towards its core.

Oddly enough, Lonergan’s thought seems to flirt with a semiotic approach to the real, though I might be reading into it too much.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

These essays and lectures (along with one interview) provide vital background information to the immediate context of Method in Theology. In addition, the last essay gives a lot of personal history on how Insight came to be. In general, the information on Lonergan's life and development alone makes this volume useful to anyone with a strong interest in Lonergan. Also, these essays allow for a way into Lonergan's thought in that some of them were lectures to audiences that weren't all familiar with his ideas. Although they are a bit repetitive, as always, Lonergan's nuances in one direction or the other are deeply rewarding in that he was always discovering and disclosing new probable insights into both humanity and theology. Lastly, I would note that a recurring (and valuable) theme in this volume is the way in which Insight was oriented toward Lonergan's later work on theological method, work that was only cut short when he was called back to Rome to teach in 1953.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

You need to read this to better understand Method in Theology.