The Thomist Sources of Lonergan’s Dynamic World-View

THE THOMIST SOURCES OF LONERGAN'S DYNAMIC WORLD-VIEW HROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, philosopher-theologian Bernard Lonergan has been intensely preoccupied with the problems of emergence and development. These problems are central to many of his essays of the last two decades .1 In his courses on the theology of the early church he has traced the emergence of the doctrine of the consubstantiality of Christ.2 In his book, Method in Theology,3 one finds a lengthy discussion of doctrinal development. Major sections of his philosophical work, Insight,4 are devoted to the issues of emergence and development in general. Indeed, Lonergan's earliest scholarly investigations into Aquinas's theory of operative grace 5 were devoted to showing how St. Thomas's thought on the subject developed, in contrast to interpreters who had attempted to formulate a single system embracing all of Aquinas's writings on grace. Even the briefest survey of Loner1 See, for example, Lonergan's "Mission and the Spirit", pp. 69-78 in Experience of The Spirit, Concilium, vol. 99 (Peter Huizing and William Bassett, eds., N.Y.: The Seabury Press, 1974/76), "The Ongoing Genesis of Methods", Sciences Religieuses /Studies in Religion 6 (1976-77), pp. 341-355, and most of the Articles in A Second Collection, (W. Ryan and B. Tyrrell, eds., Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1974), hereafter cited as Second Collection. 2 Lonergan originally published his lecture notes in 1964. These lecture notes have recently been edited and translated by Conn O'Donovan, and published as Bernard Lonergan, The Way to Nicea, (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976). 8 Bernard Lonergan, Method in Theology, (N.Y.: Herder and Herder, 1972), pp. 300-330. 4 Bernard Lonergan, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (N.Y.: Philosophical Library, 1958), pp. 115-139, 259-267, 444-483. -Hereafter cited as ln!fight. 5 Bernard Lonergan, "St. Thomas's Thought on Gratia Operans ", Theological Studies, 2 (1941), pp. 289-3M, 3 (1942), pp. 69-88, 357-402, 533-578. These articles were later edited into the collection, Grace and Freedom, (J. Patout Burns, ed., N.Y.: Herder and Herder, 1970). All references to those articles will be from this volume, hereafter cited as Grace and Freedom. 108 THOMIST SOURCES OF LONERGAN's WORLD-VIEW 109 gan's writings will reveal that Lonergan is committed to a view of the universe in which emergence and development play an essential role. Lonergan's commitment to a dynamic world-view comes somewhat unexpectedly, since he has always understood himself to be firmly within the Thomist tradition. It had been commonly supposed that the Thomist tradition-including the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas himself-is intrinsically committed to a static, not a dynamic, world view. That is, it has been assumed that the foundational principles of St. Thomas's philosophy and theology themselves require a commitment to a static world-view. According to critics, a static world-view implies that all possible types of beings were present in the universe from the moment of creation onward. Such a world-view, it is further objected, is incompatible with modern scientific findings which have led to the theories of biological evolution, general relativistic cosmology and the theories of embryological and cognitive development. In short, a static world-view is one where evolution , emergence or development of new forms of being has no place. On the other hand, not only has Lonergan always regarded himself as an authentic Thomist, he has also insisted repeatedly that his own philosophical and theological principles-the principles which ground his discussions of emergence and development -were themselves derived from his earliest researches into the writings of Aquinas.6 To take Lonergan's assertions seriously demands a new way of thinking about St. Thomas's world-view. First, one would have to admit that Aquinas's thought is not necessarily committed to a static world-view and is in fact open to a dynamic world view. Second, one would have to go still further and acknowledge that St. Thomas's thought is not only open to emergent and developmental 6 See, for example, Insight, pp. 747-84, "Aquinas Today: Tradition and Innovation ", The Journal of Religion 55 (1972), pp. 165-180...