theology. metaphysics. epistemology. ethics. politics. aesthetics. history. apologetics.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Lonergan's project (in one paragraph)
Aquinas's
language is metaphysical (potency, form, act, agent intellect, possible
intellect, etc.). But the modern charge against theology is that none
of this can be demonstrated, observed, or proven on an empirical basis.
Lonergan's project was to transpose Aquinas into explicitly
psychological language. Anyone, then, can observe and appropriate the
workings of his own mind when he is knowing something. Experiencing,
understanding, and judging would be the psychological correlates to
potency, form, and act in metaphysics. This empirical approach is a
response to a particularly modern attack on faith. And, if Aquinas's thought is re-conceived and transposed isomorphically (i.e. merely a different expression of the same form, as mathematics may be expressed either geometrically or symbolically), then it can handle modern attacks with more potency than a purely metaphysical account.
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