Before Truth: Lonergan, Aquinas, and the Problem of Wisdom

433 Pages·2018·1.39 MB·English

by  Jeremy D Wilkins

Before Truth

Before Truth
Lonergan, Aquinas, and the
Problem of Wisdom
jeremy d. wilkins
The Catholic University of America Press
Washington, D.C.
Copyright © 2018
The Catholic University of America Press
All rights reserved
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wilkins, Jeremy D. (Jeremy Daniel), author.
Title: Before truth : Lonergan, Aquinas, and the problem of wisdom /
Jeremy D. Wilkins.
Description: Washington, D.C. : Catholic University of America Press,
2018. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018030458 | ISBN 9780813231471 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Lonergan, Bernard J. F. | Thomas, Aquinas, Saint,
1225?-1274. | Truth—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Wisdom—
Religious aspects--Christianity.
Classification: LCC BX4705.L7133 W55 2018 | DDC 230/.2092—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018030458
Coniugi dilectissimae et filiis carissimis

Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
Aquinas and Lonergan’s Grammar of Wisdom 5
The Structure of the Book 10
PRELUDE 15
Chapter One: Apprehensions and Misapprehensions 17
Quarantine 19
The Subversive 22
The Paradox 27
The Real Import 33
Chapter Two: A Crisis of Normativity 37
Science and History 40
Scientism and Historicism 45
The Crisis of Christian Thought and Culture 49
Conclusion 55
PART 1 — WISDOM AS SUBJECT 59
Chapter Three: A ‘Wisdom of the Concrete’ 61
Wisdom as Self-Surrender 64
The Question of God 72
Wisdom as Self-Knowledge and Self-Appropriation 79
Conclusion 93
vii
viii Contents
Chapter Four: Aquinas and Lonergan’s Turn to the
Subject 96
Discovery 101
An ‘Introspective’ Reading 106
The ‘Logico-Ontological Parallel’ 112
Self-Presence and Self-Knowledge 119
Conclusion 130
Chapter Five: Self-Appropriation as First Philosophy 131
An Essay in Aid of Rational Self-Appropriation 133
Completing the Circle 141
Metaphysics in Practice 151
Clarification by Contrast 165
Conclusion 177
Chapter Six: Foundational Methodology and Theology 180
The Notion of Developing Sciences 183
Transposing Paradigms 196
Foundational Methodology and the Control of Meaning 205
Theology as Functional Collaboration 209
Specialties and Specialists 221
Transformation and Continuity in Theological Method 223
Conclusion 228
Entr’acte 231
PART 2: WISDOM AS OBJECT 233
Chapter Seven: Doctrine and Meaning 235
Narrative and Symbolic Meaning 238
Propositional Meaning 244
Systematic Meaning 252
Dogma and Truth 259
Dialectic: Process and Analysis 263
Doctrine in Ongoing Contexts 273
Contents ix
Chapter Eight: Systematics and Systematicians 278
Rahner’s Critique and Its Context 279
Three Problems of Order 286
Systematic Order 293
Hypothesis and Verification 297
Necessity and Analogy 304
Contingency and Fittingness 309
Conclusion 314
Chapter Nine: Wisdom Incarnate 316
The Question 318
Doctrine and Theory: Interdependent Contexts 321
Winds of Change 324
Contemplata aliis tradere: The Vocation of Christ 330
The Silence of Eternity 332
Development from Above 339
Interpreted by Love 345
Conclusion 350
Conclusion and Epilogue 352
Works Cited 361
Subject Index 395
Index of Names 406