Bernard Lonergan 1904 – 1984
Bernard Joseph Francis Lonergan was a Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian and one of the leading representatives of transcendental Thomism. After studies at Heythrop, London, and Rome, he spent most of his teaching career in Toronto and Rome, with a final phase at Boston College. His Insight: A Study of Human Understanding offered a comprehensive analysis of the cognitional operations involved in mathematical, scientific, philosophical, and theological knowing, while Method in Theology proposed a generalized transcendental method of attentive, intelligent, reasonable, and responsible inquiry as the foundation of human science. His work has shaped an international school of Lonergan studies.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Canadian
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Christian, Continental
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Bernard Lonergan:
“Be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be responsible.”
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Attributed to Bernard Lonergan:
“Genuine knowing is a structure of operations, not a single act.”
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Attributed to Bernard Lonergan:
“The dynamic of human intentionality is the eros of the human spirit.”
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Attributed to Bernard Lonergan:
“Method is not a set of rules, but the structure of conscious operations.”
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Attributed to Bernard Lonergan:
“Conversion is the radical transformation of the subject's horizons.”