Knowra Bernard Lonergan Bernard Lonergan Bernard Lonergan (1904–1984) was a Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian whose work examined human understanding, knowledge, and theological method.
Insight : A grasp of intelligible relationships that resolves a question or problem. Lonergan’s account centers on insights as acts that organize experience into understanding.
Cognitional structure : The ordered operations through which people experience, understand, judge, and decide. This sequence is the core of Lonergan’s explanation of human knowing.
Method in Theology : Bernard Lonergan’s account of theology as eight specialized, interrelated functional specialties. It applies his general account of method directly to theological work.
Thomas Aquinas : A medieval Dominican theologian and philosopher whose works shaped Catholic theology and scholastic thought. Lonergan’s early philosophical study and later theology engaged deeply with Aquinas.
Transcendental Thomism : A modern interpretation of Thomas Aquinas that relates his philosophy to questions about human subjectivity and knowledge. Lonergan became one of the major twentieth-century thinkers associated with this approach.
Intentionality : The directedness of mental acts toward objects, meanings, or goals. Lonergan treats consciousness as dynamically oriented toward questions and answers.
Question for intelligence : A question that seeks an explanation or intelligible pattern. Such questions prompt the insights that move experience toward understanding.
Functional specialties : Eight interrelated tasks that organize theological research, interpretation, history, and communication. These specialties turn Lonergan’s methodological principles into a working structure for theology.
Jesuits : A Catholic religious order founded by Ignatius of Loyola in the sixteenth century. Lonergan’s Jesuit vocation shaped his education, teaching, and theological work.
Lonergan Institute : A research and educational center devoted to the study of Bernard Lonergan’s thought. Institutes and scholarly networks sustain study of his philosophical and theological work.
Show all 25