Bernard Lonergan

Roy, Louis. Engaging the Thought of Bernard Lonergan. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's Press, 2016. ISBN 978-0-7735-4707-0.

Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) was a Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian, taught in the United States, Canada, and Rome. His two major works are Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (1957) and Method in Theology (1972), they attempt to "discern how knowledge is advanced in the natural sciences, the human studies, the arts, ethics, and theology." Lonergan is a great fit for the Great Books program since he is a critical realist and a Christian humanist. In addition, he engaged most of the great thinkers in Western civilization: Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Heidegger, Gadamer, Kierkegaard, and others. He is a good companion to Charles Taylor, author of A Secular Age. I will be reading through an anthology of his writings next semester.

Louis Roy is a professor of theology at Dominican University College, Ottawa.

In Engaging the Thought of Bernard Lonergan, Louis Roy "stresses the empirical aspect of Lonergan's cognitional theory in relation to the role of meaning, objectivity, subjectivity, and historical consciousness." I like the way that Roy has organized this book. Instead of giving a broad overview of Lonergan's writings, he provides fifteen different studies that engages Lonergan with the following topics: empirical method, integrating method of different fields, religious belief, faith and reason, meaning and truth, mysticism, liturgy, education, and God's providence. He even has a study which compares Lonergan with Gandhi. Roy not only engages Lonergan's thought, but also its implications for many fields. 

Part one provides a broad overview of Lonergan's contribution to methodology, philosophy, and theology. Study 1 characterizes Lonergan's method as empirical. Study 2 "adds that his method is integrative" because it connects philosophy and theology with the major disciplines of knowledge. Part 2 analyzes religious experience. Study three describes Lonergan's view of religious experience how he connects it with the working of the human mind. Study four explains the process of human intentionality. Study five analyzes faith and belief and where Lonergan stands, with Schleiermacher and Wilfred Cantwell Smith or Aquinas. Study six "highlights the paramount import of Lonergan's distinction between meaning and truth in regard to divine revelation." Study 7 examines the weaknesses of traditionalism and relativism. Part Three "draws out implications of Lonergan's cognitional theory in four quite different areas: theology, mysticism, liturgy, and education." Study 8 examines Rahner's misreadings of Aquinas. Study nine applies Lonergan's view of consciousness to mysticism. Study 10 uses Lonergan's cognitional theory to explain the liturgical experience. Study 11 applies Lonergan's epistemology, ethics, and theology to the field of education. Lonergan emphasizes asking questions in the learning experience. It made me think of the emphasis of asking questions in reading the Great Books. Part 4 is concerned with ethics. Study 11 compares Lonergan with John Macmurry. Study 13 examines Gandhi and Lonergan's critique of Western society. Study 14 analyzes human rights and discusses Lonergan's his three conversions: intellectual, moral, and religious. Study 15 examines Aquinas's teaching on providence.

This book is quite readable. The chapters are about 15 pages which makes it easy to read in one sitting. I have read many books on Lonergan, and this seems like a perfect one to introduce the reader to Bernard Lonergan's thought.