Troubled by the Great Depression, two world wars, and modernity's challenges to religion, Bernard Lonergan attempted to do for our age what Thomas Aquinas did for his: to integrate the best of secular and sacred learning and thus further the Catholic tradition of using both faith and reason to advance the common good and participate in God's work of salvation. Drawing on modern advances in the natural sciences, economics, history, and psychology, as well as ancient and medieval philosophy and theology, Lonergan's work is highly fruitful but exceedingly complex. This book provides a basic yet broad introduction to Lonergan's thought in particular and Catholic theology in general. Mark T. Miller's approach is a theological anthropology organized into three main categories, "progress," "decline," and "redemption," which transpose the traditional concepts of nature, sin, and grace into a contemporary social and historical context. Progress is driven by the natural human desire for God. Decline is a downward spiral of violence and suffering caused by sin's perversion of the good, natural desire. Redemption is God's gift of God's self that fulfills our natural desire and becomes the foundation for authentic human living. Throughout this introductory text, progress, decline, and redemption constitute a systematic framework for examining the central terms of Catholic theology, as well as key notions in Lonergan's theology. The book provides a firm foundation for students of Lonergan as well as anyone interested in understanding Catholic theology and applying it to ministry, education, and other fields. ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mark T. Miller is assistant professor of theology at the University of San Francisco.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:
"This book presents the complex thought of Bernard Lonergan to beginners by using Lonergan's structure of history with the components of progress, decline, and redemption. The result is a basic theological anthropology that I strongly recommend as an introductory text in college theology."--Robert M. Doran, SJ, Emmet Doerr Chair in Catholic Systematic Theology, Marquette University; Editor of the Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan
"This is the book I have long been looking for, the one I will use in my classes as I
introduce students to the seminal figure of Bernard Lonergan and to his writings on the dynamics of the human person and community."--Richard M. Liddy, University
Professor of Catholic Thought, Seton Hall University