Lonergan asserts, "The facts of good and evil, of progress and decline, raise questions about the character of our universe" (472). These questions have been asked in a variety of ways. The transcendental method brings a unity to these questions. "We can inquire into the possibility of fruitful inquiry. We can reflect on the nature of reflection. We can deliberate whether our deliberating is worthwhile" (472). Behind these questions is the question of God.
Lonergan writes, "The possibility of inquiry on the side of the subject lies in his intelligence, in his drive to know what, why, how, and in his ability to reach intellectually satisfying answers" (472). Why do we desire to know everything about everything? Why are there answers to our questions? Why is the world intelligible? Why should our answers be related to the universe? Why do we assume they do? "So implicitly we grant that the universe is intelligible and, once that is granted,there arises the question whether the universe could be intelligible without having an intelligent ground" (472). Once again, this is the question of God.
Lonergan inquires about our reflections and judgments. "Again, to reflect on reflection is to ask just what happens when we marshal and weigh evidence for pronouncing that this is probably is so and that probably is not so. ... Judgment proceed rationally from a grasp of a virtual unconditioned. By an unconditioned is meant any 'x' that has no conditions. By virtually unconditioned is meant any 'x' that has no unfulfilled conditions. ... To marshal the evidence is to ascertain whether all the conditions are fulfilled. To weigh the evidence is to ascertain whether the fulfillment of the conditions certainly or probably involves the existence or occurrence of the conditioned" (473).
Lonergan states that this explanation of judgment implies another element. If we are going to talk about a virtually unconditioned, then, we must also talk about the unconditioned. Lonergan explains, "The virtually unconditioned has no unfulfilled conditions. The strictly unconditioned has no conditions whatever. In traditional terms, the former is a contingent being, and the latter is a necessary being" (473). In more modern terms, the virtually unconditioned has to do with our world of possible being; the strictly unconditioned has to do with something beyond our world. In both cases, however, the question of God emerges. "Does a necessary being exist? Does there exist a reality that transcends the reality of this world?" (473).
Lonergan asks about our own deliberating, choosing, and deciding. "To deliberate abut 'x' is to ask whether 'x' is worthwhile. To deliberate about deliberating is to ask whether any deliberating is worthwhile" (473). Does worthwhile have any "ultimate meaning?" (473) Is moral living "consonant with the world?" (473) We praise people for their growth in attention, insight, reasonableness, and responsibility. We praise good and renounce evil. We praise progress and reject decline. "But is the universe on our side?" (473). These questions or reflections causes to emerge the question, "Does there or does there not necessarily exist a transcendent, intelligent ground of the universe? Is that ground or are we the primary instance of moral consciousness?" (473)
Behind our questions lie the question of God. "At their root there is the same transcendental tendency of the human heart that questions, that questions without restriction, that questions the significance of its own questioning, and so comes the question of God" (474).
The question of God lies behind all our questioning, "so being in love with God is the basic fulfillment of our conscious intentionality" (474). That fulfillment brings a deep joy that can endure despite the trials of life. That fulfillment brings a lasting peace that overcomes the world. That fulfillment leads to loving one's neighbor. On the other hand, the absence of that fulfillment "opens the way to trivilization of human life in the pursuit of fun, to the harshness of human life arising from the ruthless exercise of power, to despair about human welfare springing from the conviction that the universe is absurd" (474).
Lonergan describes being-in-love-with-God. "Being in love with God, as experienced, is being in love in an unrestricted fashion. All love is self-surrender, but being in love with God is being in love without limits or qualifications or conditions or reservations. Just as unrestricted questioning is our capacity for self-transcendence, so being in love in an unrestricted fashion is the proper fulfillment of that capacity" (474-475).
That fulfillment is not produced by us, but is God's gift. It is not a "product of our knowledge and choice" (475). It is a result of conversion, "it dismantles and abolishes the horizon in which our choosing and knowing went on and it sets up a new horizon in which the love of God will transvalue our values and the eyes of that love will transform our knowing" (475).
Lonergan states that though it is not a product of our knowing and choosing, it is a "conscious dynamic state of love, joy, peace, that manifests itself in acts of kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5, 22)" (475).
Though this dynamic state is conscious, it is not necessarily known. "For consciousness is just experience," but knowledge is a combination of experience, understanding, and judgment. Lonergan says because it is conscious without being known, "it is an experience of mystery. Because it is being in love, the mystery is not merely attractive but fascinating; to it one belongs; by it one is possessed. Because it is an unmeasured love, the mystery evokes awe. Of itself, then inasmuch as it is conscious without being known, the gift of God's love is an experience of the holy, of Rudolf Otto's mysterium fascinans et tremendum. It is what Paul Tillich named being grasped by ultimate concern. It corresponds to St. Ignatius Loyola's consolation that has no cause, as expounded by Karl Rahner" (475).
The religious experience is conscious on the fourth level of intentional consciousness. It is not the consciousness of the first level of empirical consciousness. It is not the consciousness of the second level of intellectual consciousness. It is not the consciousness of the third level of rational consciousness. It is the consciousness of the fourth level of consciousness of deliberation. Lonergan writes, "It is the type of consciousness that deliberates, makes judgments of value, decides, acts responsibly and freely. But it is this consciousness as brought to fulfillment, as having undergone a conversion, as possessing a basis that may be broadened and deepened and heightened and enriched but not superseded, as ready to deliberate and judge and decide and act with the easy freedom of those that do all good because they are in love. So the gift of God's love occupies the ground and root of the fourth and highest level of man's intentional consciousness" (475-476).
Being in love with God does not lead in a straight line upward, but more like up and down. "For that love is the utmost in self-transcendence, and man's self-transcendence is ever precarious. Of itself, self-transcendence involves tension between the self as transcending and the self as transcended. So, human authenticity is never some pure and serene and secure possession" (476).
Lonergan states that faith is "knowledge born of religious love" (477). First, there is "knowledge born of love" (477). Lonergan thinks this is similar to Pascal's "the heart has reasons which reason does not know" (477). This is a knowledge from the heart and affections. Lonergan explains, "By the heart's reasons I would understand feelings that are intentional responses to values ... Finally, by the heart I understand the subject on the fourth, existential level of intentional consciousness and in the dynamic state of being in love. The meaning, then, of Pascal's remark would be that, besides the factual knowledge reached by experiencing, understanding, and verifying, there is another kind of knowledge reached through the discernment of value of a person in love" (477).
This knowledge of faith is a result of God's love being poured into our heart. Lonergan states that added to our apprehension of "vital, social, and cultural values" is the "apprehension of transcendent value" (477). This apprehensions "consists in the experienced fulfillment of our unrestricted thrust to self-transcendence, in our actuated orientation towards the mystery of love and awe" (477-478). Lonergan adds, "Since that thrust is of intelligence to the intelligible, of reasonableness to the true and real, of freedom and responsibility to the truly good, the experienced fulfillment of that thrust in its unrestrictedness may be objectified as a clouded revelation of absolute intelligence and intelligibility, absolute truth and reality, absolute goodness and holiness" (478). This presents the question of God in a new "form". It turns it into a question of decision. Will I love him in response to his love for me? Will I live out that love toward others? The question of God's existence is now secondary.
Lonergan says that faith has both an absolute as well as relative aspect. Lonergan writes, "It places all other values in the light and the shadow of transcendent value. In the shadow, for transcendent value links itself to all other values to transform, magnify, and glorify them. Without faith the originating value is man and the terminal value is the human good that man brings about. But in the light of faith, originating value is divine light and love, while terminal value is the whole universe. So the human good becomes absorbed in an all-encompassing good" (478).
Faith is the answer to the problem of evil. "Without faith, without the eye of love, the world is too evil for God to be good, for a good God to exist. But faith recognizes that God grants men their freedom, that he wills them to be persons and not just his automata, that he calls them to the higher authenticity that overcomes evil with good. So faith is linked with human progress and it has to meet the challenge of human decline" (479).
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