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LONERGAN'S CONTRIBUTION TO ISSUES OF FAITH
Louis Roy, O.P.
Boston College
First Published in The Oscotian (Summer 1998) 47-50.
In his writings, especially Insight and Method in Theology, the
Canadian Jesuit Bernard Lonergan (1904-84) highlights the basic
operations of the human mind, each of them being subdividable
into several acts. They are: (1) experience, (2) understanding,
(3) judgment, and (4) decision. In this short article, I would
like to argue that by systematically elucidating and relating
those four levels of what he calls 'conscious intentionality',
Lonergan makes an interesting contribution to the treatise on
faith.
Continuity
Lonergan's account of human intentionality -- that is, our
built-in tendency to intend reality -- has the advantage of
exhibiting the continuity with great thinkers of the past. While
materialists restrict their attention to experience, Plato
concentrates on understanding, Aristotle explores judgment, and
Augustine adds decision. Like the bishop of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas
has the four operations. We find in his writings at times
connections between the senses (both external and internal) and
understanding, at times connections between the first and the
second operation of the mind (respectively simple apprehension
and judgment), and at times connections between the intellect and
the will. Still, he does not portray the four basic activities
together in one single painting, so to speak.
By giving us the full picture, Lonergan may help us very
fruitfully to reread ancient authors such as Plato, Aristotle,
Augustine and Thomas, as well as modern ones such as Newman.
Indeed the New Testament includes elements that belong to each of
the four levels. On the first, the parables of Jesus are
addressed to our imagination (Mt 13). Each of the successive
levels is also illustrated by a different question. What gives
rise to the second set of human acts is the question for
intelligence, such as 'How can this be?' (Luke 1:34). What gives
rise to the third set is the question for truth, such as 'Are you
he who is to come?' (Mt 11:3) What gives rise to the fourth set
is the question for deliberation, such as 'What then shall we
do?' (Luke 3:10)
The Metaphorical and the Literal
Plato shows us the enormous difference between perceiving
and understanding. Heeding this difference, most patristic and
mediaeval writers distinguish what is said of God metaphorically
(based on sense experience) and what is said properly or
literally (based on the understanding of a perfection). Scripture
speaks metaphorically when it states that Jesus is both 'the Lion
of the tribe of Juda' and 'a Lamb' (Revelation 5:5-6); it speaks
literally when it refers to 'the Father' and 'the Son' (John
3:16) or when it asserts that 'there is only one who is good' (Mt
19:17).
This distinction is most helpful in the current debate
prompted by the feminist critique of religious language. The
validity of the metaphorical (issuing from perception, at the
first level) is guaranteed by the literal (on the level of
understanding). The importance of the literal (as spiritual) can
solely be appreciated if we have realized how much understanding
adds to mere perceiving. Literal names offered by divine
revelation can safeguard the deposit of faith and guide current
language usage. Only literal names can regulate creativity
regarding new images. Otherwise, mere pragmatic decisions are
made concerning words to be changed in liturgy. The new criterion
risks being, 'Let us adopt those new images of God, since they
express our own human experience!'
'To believe in order to understand'
This famous dictum by St Augustine presupposes a fundamental
distinction between the second and the third level of human
intentionality. On the second level, we ask questions such as
'What is it?' On the third, we ask questions such as 'Is it so?'
Even children notice the difference between what is imaginable,
meaningful and not necessarily actual (for instance, Santa Claus)
and what is real (for example, their parents' requirements). As
Augustine and Newman insist, in the order of faith, assent
constitutes the central act. We believe Christ, not because we
find everything in his message equally meaningful, but in order
to understand more and more of it.
Lonergan explains that it would be pointless to believe,
were we not in love with the One we trust. Hence the significance
of the fourth level of intentionality. Here he closely follows
Augustine, who is at once the doctor of love and the doctor of
grace. Both of them are fond of quoting Romans 5:5, 'Hope does
not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.'
Imagination and Real Apprehension
The strong emphasis laid on belief by the Catholic Church is
balanced by her mystical tradition. On the third level, belief is
not blind, since it takes place in a context of prayer and lectio
divina. By speaking of 'real apprehension', Newman beautifully
illustrates how the first and second levels do enrich the third,
which he calls 'assent'. On the first level, the imagination
vividly represents the concrete scenes of the life of Jesus.
Through the particular images and feelings, insights occur on the
second level. Real apprehensions are these insights into Jesus,
the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the lives of the saints.
Building on Coleridge and Newman, John Coulson (in his Religion
and Imagination 'in aid of a grammar of assent') emphasizes the
paramount role of the literary imagination in opening up fresh
perspectives on our world and on the meaning of existence.
The Healing of Human Intentionality
Human intentionality was created pure and whole by God.
Unfortunately it has been marred by original sin. Lonergan
recognizes that our acts are distorted by several forms of bias:
dramatic bias, which is psychic; individual bias, which fosters
selfishness; group bias, which protects class interest; and
general bias, the result of a pragmatism that prefers short-term
gain to long-range solutions. As a consequence, human
intentionality stands in need of conversion. Conversion is
brought about by divine grace, which operates first and foremost
on the fourth level. It consists in the gift of a new heart. In
its turn, this loving heart attunes a person to religious and
worldly values, according to the right scale in which they must
be situated.
When the heart is given a benevolent inclination towards God
and the human race, and when values find their respective place
in the order of love, healing takes place on the fourth level of
intentionality. This level influences the third, in that one
becomes willing to believe, to accept the truths revealed by the
God one is in love with. Such truths are the judgments of fact
that make up the Creed. For Lonergan faith issues in judgments of
value, and belief issues in judgments of fact. Based on those
judgments, faith regulated by belief and seeking understanding
engenders lots of insights on the second level of intentionality.
At the same time, those insights are embodied in images,
feelings, symbols, words and artefacts, on the first level of
intentionality.
Conclusion
In general, the way of creativity implies a movement
upwards, which proceeds from the first level to the second and so
forth. This movement is complemented by the way of healing, which
descends from the fourth level until it reaches the first.
However, there are more than two sequences. Under the motions of
the Holy Spirit, the human mind becomes very flexible and many
interactions take place among the several levels it spans. Paying
attention to such interactions is the task of pastors concerned
to accompany believers on the road towards Christian perfection.
Lonergan's works can help them to know more fully the
complexities of the human soul and to be competent guides in a
world where so many of our contemporaries are seeking self-knowledge and spirituality.
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