From Human and Angelic Understanding to Divine Understanding in Lonergan and Aquinas
by Br. Dunstan Robidoux OSB In the kind of analysis which one finds in Lonergan’s The Triune God: Systematics, much is said about how it is possible to move from one’s created, finite self-understanding toward an analogical knowledge about what can be said about God as an unrestricted...
Being and Good as Primary Notions in Aquinas and Lonergan
by Br. Dunstan Robidoux OSB In the order which one finds in Lonergan’s intentionality analysis, moral deliberation succeeds acts of reflective understanding which have concluded that certain things are true and other, false. Good presents itself as a more comprehensive notion. A person can begin with a...
Speaking about God’s Nature in Aquinas and Lonergan: A Question about Different Starting Points
by Br. Dunstan Robidoux OSB In his The Triune God: Systematics, pp. 193-199, in a seeming contrast with Aquinas, Lonergan speaks about God’s attributes by using the infinity or unrestrictedness of God’s understanding as his first principle. By working from a notion of infinity and as one applies...
Judgment in Aquinas and Lonergan
by Br. Dunstan Robidoux OSB When Lonergan speaks about judgment in terms of affirmation and negation (one affirms, for instance, that something is so or one affirms that something is not so), he speaks differently from Aquinas who had tended to speak about judgment in terms of notions which...
Understanding Two Kinds of Emanation within God Through a Transposition of Meaning
1 by Br. Dunstan Robidoux OSB For an initial understanding about what is meant by a “transposition of meaning,” as Matthew Lamb argues in “Lonergan’s Transpositions of Augustine and Aquinas: Exploratory Suggestions,” The Importance of Insight Essays in Honour of Michael Vertin, pp. 3-21, it is one thing to...
Originating Consciousness and Emanation within God
by Br. Dunstan Robidoux OSB In Lonergan’s theology of the Trinity as this is given in his The Triune God: Systematics, Lonergan postulates explanatory principles (as needed) in order to move toward richer experiences of meaning with respect to how the God of Christian belief is to be conceived...
Hello world!
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!...
Sacraments and the Divine Entrance into the World Mediated by Meaning
by David Fleischacker I hear people wondering at times about the meaning and purpose of the Catholic belief in the seven sacraments. Traditionally, these sacraments are understood as sacred gifts given to us from God which both signify and effect grace in us. Yet, some ask, creation is given...
Embryonic Stem Cells, Adult Stem Cells, and Medical Treatments
by Dr. David Fleischacker Only adult stem cells work in adult tissues. Embryonic stem cells work in embryos, not mature organisms. The Term “Stem Cell” Unfortunately, the technical language that develops within a discipline does not always suggest what it should, especially when it is used in the general...
40 Years Since Humanae Vitae: A Metaphysical Distinction
by Dr. David Fleischacker As with men, the organic and psychic life of women possesses an intelligibility that begins with the finality to conceive life. And as in men, the lower levels are intrinsically oriented toward higher levels of intellectual, rational, volitional life, with an obediential potency to...