Bernard Lonergan
Fr Bernard Joseph Francis Lonergan, SJ, CC ( * December 17, 1904; † 26 November 1984) was a Canadian Jesuit theologian and philosopher of religion.
Life
Lonergan's philosophical- theological formation is rooted in Thomism; in Quebec, he studied economics. In 1922, he joined the Order of the Jesuits, acquired in 1929 with a BA in philosophy at Heythrop College, 1933, a Catholic priest in 1940, he received his theological doctorate with a dissertation on Charles Boyer, SJ, later published under the title Grace and Freedom: Operative Grace in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. Lonergan taught at Loyola College in Montreal (now Concordia University), at the University of Toronto ( Regis College), at the Gregorian University, Rome, and at Boston College. He is the author of several theological works much discussed, including Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (1957) and Method in Theology (1972). In it, he developed the so-called Generalized Empirical Method of him (GEM ). In 1970 he was awarded the Companion of the Order of Canada.
Work
After his return from Rome Lonergan wrote four articles in the journal Theological Studies about the 'Inner Word' in Thomas Aquinas, which were important for the research on the Thomistic theory of knowledge and insight and later under the title Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas have been published. His study Insight: A Study of Human Understanding wrote Lonergan teaches at Regis College ( University of Toronto connected). There he developed his generalized empirical method (GEM ). He stands in the reasoned by Joseph Maréchal school of " transcendental Thomism ". The starting point is an analysis of human knowledge, which is divided into different levels: experience, understanding, judgment. Similar to the case of Kant ( claimed ) emphasizes objectivity of judgment. Lonergan describes the GEM as critical realism. Realistically, it is the claim to objectivity of our judgments about facts and values , critical knowledge embedding and Werturteilungen in a critique of human consciousness. Basic is an analysis of the reasons and conditions of constitution of meanings, values and the factors of personal, social and historical developments. This critical realism at the same time founded a Thomistic preparation of Seinsbegrifs as the target of a dynamic openness of the human intellect.
Lonergan's Method in Theology in 1973 published study divided this science into eight functional areas of expertise. In all disciplines and areas of conscious life is to apply the same basic method. Here Lonergan intended particularly a foundation for correspondences in disciplines such as philosophy and theology. The absence of a split among researchers blocking method here scientific progress; their existence in the natural sciences explain reversed the local rapid progress of knowledge.
During his later apprenticeship at Boston College Lonergan returned to his initial interest in economic issues. To this end, he put two investigations: For a New Political Economy and Macroeconomic Dynamics: An Essay in Circulation Analysis.
In German-speaking Lonergan was made known above all by the Italian Jesuit Giovanni B. Sala. During his lifetime, only one book was published in German language ( Theology in the pluralism of today's cultures).