Frederick Crowe, S.J. – författare

Because of illness and age the Jesuit theologian and philosopher Bernard Lonergan never completed the systematic study on Christology, the doctrine concerning the person of Christ, that he had planned to write. Christ and History, written by his former student Frederick E. Crowe, is an attempt to rectify that loss by tracing the outline of Lonergan’s possible work on the subject.

Moving from the Jesuit philosopher’s early student work, through the fertile and productive years in which he wrote Insight and Method in Theology, to his final lectures on the topic, Crowe presents the evolution of Lonergan’s thinking on Christology in the context of the radical developments contained within his other theological writings. Written in the spirit of piety towards his revered teacher, Christ and History is an important analysis of these works and the Christology that they contain.

Because of illness and age the Jesuit theologian and philosopher Bernard Lonergan never completed the systematic study on Christology, the doctrine concerning the person of Christ, that he had planned to write. Christ and History, written by his former student Frederick E. Crowe, is an attempt to rectify that loss by tracing the outline of Lonergan’s possible work on the subject.

Moving from the Jesuit philosopher’s early student work, through the fertile and productive years in which he wrote Insight and Method in Theology, to his final lectures on the topic, Crowe presents the evolution of Lonergan’s thinking on Christology in the context of the radical developments contained within his other theological writings. Written in the spirit of piety towards his revered teacher, Christ and History is an important analysis of these works and the Christology that they contain.

Comprising twenty papers, including six never before published, this long-awaited work spans the fifty-year career of noted theologian Frederick E. Crowe, a scholar who has devoted himself to studying, expounding, and making available the writings of Bernard Lonergan, the well-known Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian who died in 1984. The publication of these papers, compiled by Michael Vertin, is a tribute both to their subject and to their author.

Developing the Lonergan Legacy both recounts the history of Lonergan’s work in philosophy and theology, and offers significant theoretical and existential developments of that work. Divided into two sections – ‘studies,’ which examines the historical context of Lonergan and his writings, and ‘essays,’ which applies Lonergan’s work in different directions – the essays in this volume are motivated by Crowe’s deep concern for the concrete intellectual, moral, and religious welfare of his readers, of all those whom his readers might influence, and ultimately of the entire human community. Vertin’s meticulous editing and thoughtful sequencing only add to the uniquely spiritual character of Crowe’s works.

Bernard Lonergan devoted much of his life''s work to developing a generalized method of inquiry, an integrated view which would overcome the fragmentation of knowledge in our time. In Topics in Education Lonergan adapts that concern to the practical needs of educators.

Traditionalist and modernist notions of education are both criticized. Lonergan attempts to work out, in the context of the human good and the ''new learning,'' the rudiments of a philosophy of education based on his well-known discovery of norms in the unfolding of intelligent, reasonable, and responsible consciousness. He explores how the scientific revolution has changed ways of understanding reality, and examines the implications of this revolution for education.

Topics in Education, the first publication of his 1959 lectures, follows Lonergan on his early explorations of human development, studies the theories of Jean Piaget and others, and concludes with his own original ideas in the realms of ethics, art, and history.

The period during which Bernard Lonergan delivered the eleven lectures in this volume was one of important transition for him: he was moving rapidly toward a new conception of theology and its method; and he was on the verge of what is now recognized as a major breakthrough in his thought on method, the idea that came to him in February 1965 of the eight functional specialities.

While the lectures maintain a continuity with Lonergan''s previous work, they also reveal new and significant ideas, especially in regard to his drive toward a new conception of theology as a whole, and his particular concern for the relevance of theology to the spiritual life. The lectures here include ''The Redemption,'' ''Method in Catholic Theology,'' ''The Philosophy of History,'' ''The Origins of Christian Realism,'' `Time and Meaning,'' ''Consciousness and the Trinity,'' `Exegesis and Dogma,'' ''The Mediation of Christ in Prayer,'' ''The Analogy of Meaning,'' ''Philosophical Positions with Regard to Knowing,'' and ''Theology as Christian Phenomenon.''

This volume provides a key to understanding the development of Lonergan''s philosophical and theological thought, his major influences, and the pivotal moments of transition in the road leading up to Method in Theology and beyond.

Grace and Freedom represents Lonergan''s entry into subject matter that would occupy him throughout his lifetime. At the same time it is a manifestation of the thinking that has made him one of the world''s foremost Thomist scholars.

The volume is in two parts. Part One is a new edition of "Grace and Freedom: Operative Grace in the Thought of St Thomas Aquinas", four articles written by Lonergan in 1941-42, first published in book form in 1971. This edition includes new notes and indices. Part Two is Lonergan''s doctoral dissertation, "Gratia Operans", submitted to the Gregorian University, Rome, in 1940. Published here in full for the first time, the dissertation provides important context and background for the articles in the first part. Lonergan''s thesis is that, from the sixteenth century onwards, commentators on Thomas Aquinas lacked historical consciousness, raised questions that Thomas had never considered, and obfuscated the issues. Lonergan''s achievement consists in having retrieved the actual position of Thomas by adopting a historical approach that has reconstructed his intellectual development on grace. The majority of contemporary theologians now agree with the implementation of the historical method. What Lonergan also adds is a unique diagnosis of the mistakes made by the modern scholastic authors in their treatment of grace. Throughout this work, Lonergan discovers in Thomas a mind in constant development, displaying radical shifts on fundamental questions. Together the two parts not only reveal an essential step in Lonergan''s own development, but also make an impressive contribution to Thomist studies.

Bernard Lonergan''s theological writings have influenced religious scholars ever since the first publication in the 1940s of the series of five articles which make up Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas. These articles first appeared in Theological Studies and were subsequently republished in book form in 1967 under the present title. This volume contains a new preface by the editors and full translations of all Latin texts.

Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas is a product of Lonergan''s eleven years of study of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. The work is considered by many to be a breakthrough in the history of Lonergan''s theology and a foundation upon which his later contributions were constructed. Here he interprets aspects in the writing of Aquinas relevant to trinitarian theory and, as in most of Lonergan''s work, one of the principal aims is to assist the reader in the search to understand the workings of the human mind.

Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas is a vital component of Lonergan''s oeuvre, and of continuing relevance to trinitarian theology, Aquinas studies, and inquiries into human cognition.

Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984), a professor of theology, taught at Regis College, Harvard University, and Boston College. An established author known for his Insight and Method in Theology, Lonergan received numerous honorary doctorates, was a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1971 and was named as an original members of the International Theological Commission by Pope Paul VI.