Religious booknotes
Gerhart, Mary
SCANNING a • tape recording of an undergraduate seminar led by Bernard Looergan in 1976. I found the following exchange.' 'What do you understand by revelation?" asked one of the participants. "It...
...criteria of relevance, integration, rad-kality, and praxis...
...Lonergan's work is presented both aa a "therapy of interiority" (enacting the theologian to do cognitioaal analysis) and as a reflection on religious conversion as a foundation of religion (providng a theoretical understanding...
...10.95...
...forthcoming...
...A tnnsculturaJ basis for religious understanding is developed by Ver-non Gregson in his forthcoming Religious booknotes diverse value Mary Gerhart Lonergam, Spiritmatiry...
...One reason why Lonergan's work hss attracted thinkers within and outside of religion is the general usefulness of his basic distinctions, such as the one implied above between common sense and theory Nine books published within the last two years Faith...
...The concept of natural law is examined for its bias toward physicalism over personation...
...Hefting argues that doctrine is a matter-of-fact necessity— promoted by and promoting commaWhat An They Saying About Meral Nermus ?, by Eichard M (Ma, Panlist Press, $3.95, 129 pp...
...without faith nor faith without expression in belief can manifest troe religion...
...the theories and methods of the two spheres m such a fashion that...
...by Patricia Wilsoa-Kastner...
...3.95...
...by Charles, C. Hefling, Jr...
...134 pp...
...paychotherapy...
...This study of Lonergan is special in that it is intended for believers of different religious traditions who wish to develop a common dialogue ef Religious, by Varaon Oregon (Intro-(duction by Sebastian Moore...
...In constructing the notion of a "constellation of horizons" and in analyzing the view of ordinary subjects perceiving extraordinary horizons, Morelli finds much that is "worthy of suspicion" as well as of belief...
...Three models are explicated: strict consequentialist (Fletcher), mixed conseqwentialist or revisionist (Knaoet, Schuller, Fochs, Janssens, McCormick), and deon-tologist (Grisez, May...
...Oregson notioes that, in spite of all the East-West diatogoe...
...Mark Morelli attempts, in Philosophy's Place in Culture: A Model, to schematize terms commonly employed in contemporary discourse but uncommonly resistant to clarification—terms like "horizon," "philosophy," "culture," "standpoint...
...Viladesau presents a coherent review of the question His expedition draws opon Loaergan aad ethers in the transcendental tradition aftd is heightened by the frequent jwx-taposition of a quotation from Scrip-toe with one from another source...
...This is one of the finest book* thus far on feminist theology In touch with the leading edges of feminist theological developments...
...What Are They Saying Abet* Mysticism', Harvey 0. Egan calb upon Rahner at well as Loner-gsa...
...According to Hefling, neither the skeleton nor the jellyfish-for different reasons—can dance, just as neither doctrinal afirmation...
...He argues that the naturalists and contemporary theologians could agree on their rejection of the "supernatural," as understood in the first two definitions, and on the meaning and value of the supernatural in the third definition...
...and the Meet-ing of Religions...
...He extends Loaergan'r work on doctrine with analogies, drawn from literature and the everyday...
...In What Are They Saying About Moral Norms!, Richard M. Gala invokes Lonergan's work to explicate the relationship between reality and the humaa capacity to know in what Gala calls the "new context" for doing moral theology...
...Hora...
...However audacious and even quixotic this statement seems to be on a first reading, what it claims about the partial and real intelligibility of the world is one of the best-kept secrets of humankind...
...and spiritual directing and has integrated Why Deetriness by Charters, Helling, Jr., Cowley Publication...
...will understand the broad lines of all there is to be understood...
...The chapter on christoiogy affords the reader an opportunity to reclaim the doctrine on credible historical and religious grounds Richard Viladesau's introduction to MARY OERHART teaches hermutiutici, reii-gton...
...The ideal Chistotherapist Is a' "person who possesses equal competency in the areas of...
...For this task...
...Complex but never pedantic, the argument is clear and generous...
...la Rahner, Egaa finds the means to overcome both the Continental Protestant suspicion tht mysticism is a religious aberration and the Catholic What An They Saying About Mysel-clm ?, by Harvey D. Egaa, Pentier Prett...
...understand what it is to understand and you...
...In Faith, Feminism, and the Christ...
...8.00,196 pp...
...New York...
...Egan thinks that Loner-gaa's concept of faith as unrestricted being-in-lovc could be the basis for understanding the "transcnllural dimension of the world's great religions...
...College Theoiogical Society/University Press of America...
...8.93...
...Frederick Woodbridge, and John Randall are each the subject of a chapter...
...The chapter, "Transcendence without God,''functions not only as an excel-leaf review of toft-tbetsdc positions bet as a negative but "provisional confirmation" of his presupposition that tie question of God can be an-•wered affirmatively...
...Fortress Press, $8.95...
...peychotherapentic dimention prist in Christ's revelation...
...It all depends . ." (Loncrgan pauses), "it all depends on whether you want (he personal experience of revelation or whether you want to know it in relation to other things...
...and literature at Hobart and Williiam Smith Colleges in Geneva...
...separation of mystical theology from osier theology...
...Feminism, and the Christ...
...337 pp Seekers of Healing and Growth in Christ by Bernard J. Tyrrell...
...it does change the mind, because it changes die heart...
...Frankl...
...Prinston Press...
...Gula also discusses the presumption in favor of the episcopal magisteriun on disputed issues: he advances three reasons for the presumption without thereby denying the right of theologians to dissent...
...He speaks of Lonergan s theology as being aa "incipient" or "future" mystical neology...
...Patricia Wilson-Kastner constructs a feminist theology from the premise that "there is nothing exclusively male or female about clear thinking about personal experience...
...is his commend ably brief account of mysticism...
...The heart of the thesis is in the last chapter where Shea examines in detail three definitions of "supernatural...
...For this development...
...be or the functions at a 'Christion Integra-tionst.' " In addition to synthesizing psychological and spiritual insight, this book has good critilcal-constractive readings of Jung, Ignatius...
...sightful analyses of other philosophers on the issues of horizon and world: William James, George San-tayana, John Henry Newman...
...The goal of the book is to use " valid insights of secular psychology and therapy as • means of making explicit onthetic...
...William Shea's scholarly study of The Naturralists and the Supertatural Studies in Hertzen and an Ameriem Phylosophy Religion, by Wfflarm M. Shea, Mercer Uaivenity Press, $21.30, 244 pp...
...Pentist Press...
...Wilson-Kastner outlines ' 'the main lines of a theological exploration of human knowing which . . . is respectful of the insights of feminism and also coherent enough to provide an adequate base for exploring the theological questions that need to be addressed...
...is a lively exploration of the relationship between doctrine and faith...
...Using the The Reason for Our Hope: An Introductionb-tion to Christian Anthropology, by Richard Viladeoo...
...Another application of Lonergan's work as "therapy" is found in Chris-totherapy II A New Horizon for Counselors, Spiritual Directors, and CmmteUn, Spiritual Directers and Seetma of Healling and Growth tn Christ, by Bernerd J Tyrrell...
...Although she cites Lonergan only once, the book dearly illustrates Lonergas's rationale for method in theology...
...George Santayana, John Dewey...
...thus far no "theology or style of reli-gious thinking'' (us succeeded is providing a cognitive basis for the com-munality of Eastern and Western religions...
...Doctrine is heurristic in the sense that "re-ligkns conversion kindless a fire that gives light as well as heat...
...h is a friendly interpretation of naturalism in that, although Shea expresses a fear that contemporary philosophers who count themselves in that tradition may have become dogmatic, he values its basic tenets and finds it compatible with a religious interpretation...
...The diversity of these books also illustrates Lonergan's bold claim...
...Christian anthropology, entitled The Reason for Our Hope, takes the "philoeophical turn to the subject'' as the hallmark for credible contemporary claims aboot God...
...240 pp...
...among themselves...
...147 pp suggest that hit work as a whole i$ capable of diverse applications...
...Why Doctrines...
...and others...
...the tradition of American naturalism, The Naturalists and the Supernatural, is a "dialogue between philosophical worlds...
...nrty...
...Morelli has inPhilosophy's Plener in Culture- A Model, by Mark D. Morelli, University Press of America, $22.00, 154 pp...
...In Looergaa, Egan finds a "solid methodological basis" fdr a transposition of traditional mystical theology into a contemporary framework...
...He proposes "to carve out s cultural niche for philosophers.'' Horizon-analysis as discussed in Lonergan's anpublished manuscripts is taken as the basis for distinguishing among six horizons (one ordinary horizon and five extraordinary ones: artistic, scientific, philosophic, scholarly, religions) which have emerged in our time...
Vol. 112 • March 1985 • No. 6
