Bernard Lonergan on the Difference between Philosophy and Theology

Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) is perhaps one of the greatest, yet underrated philosophers of the last century. His name is usually eclipsed by other heavyweights in the philosophical arena like Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer and the like. This oversight however, is not due to his diminutive popularity but to blatant neglect. He featured on the cover of Time magazine (1970) on account of being “the finest philosophic thinker of the 20^th century.”This says a lot about the person he was and the lasting contribution he made to philosophical discourse.

One of the many things that struck me while studying his though was the interesting reflection he makes on the subjects of philosophy and theology. He starts out by stating that there is no absolute separation between philosophy and theology since they are isomorphic, however, a distinction can be made between the two. This distinction is on account of their different starting points but the final solution they arrive at is the same. At the outset it must be made clear that both philosophy and theology begin with the same subject, i.e. the human person. Already here, he makes a slight variation from tradition theological thinking where one would be expected to begin from Divinely Revealed Truth/s.

Philosophy views the person as s/he is, i.e., it takes into account the person’s facticity, history, tradition, culture and so on. It emphasizes self-appropriation or the process by which a person gets in touch with him/herself and his/her surroundings and is able to make sense of them. Thus, philosophy sees a person as one in need of conversion. Conversion, for Lonergan has quite a different meaning than the colloquial one. He understands conversion to be of three types: Intellectual, Moral and Religious. The first type of conversion has to do with acquiring truth. The second is concerned with the choice of values over subjective passions and the third can be described as the state of “being in love in an unrestricted manner”.

On the other hand, theology begins with data, not just any data but data impregnated with meaning. What this means is that, it sees the person, his/her situation, Divine Revelation and so on as primary data which require to be sorted, classified and worked upon in order to reach conclusions. It doesn’t take things for granted. Lonergan was of the opinion that traditional theology, in its very method of beginning from revealed truths, negated or left out the whole aspect of history and human context. In order to overcome this lacuna, he suggests the starting point, data. Theology looks at the human person as one in need of grace. The process of theologizing is guided by history or the tradition to which one belongs.

 

Lonergan emphasizes the need and vital importance of conversion. In fact, he makes it the pivot for both philosophy and theology. While in philosophy, conversion mostly happens spontaneously (Intellectual Conversion - Although the other conversions also take place), in theology it is a thematic and deliberate process (Religious Conversion – again though the other two are not neglected).

I was taken up by these views of his and feel that they really help make theology far more appropriate, practical and engaging. Although, the study of theology is still a few years away, I think this approach of Lonergan could help me enter deeper into the mysteries of life, love and God that will be the focus of theological study. Perhaps one of the greatest drawbacks of theology in our day would be neglect of history. While in the old days, there was a separation effected between philosophy and theology on the ground that the former was the work of reason while the latter that of faith, Lonergan begs to differ. He rightly points out that there is no such thing as pure reason or pure faith which can serve as the basis for philosophizing and theologizing. These are idealistic creations. Both these disciplines would prove to be effective if they have a strong existential grounding and an openness to truth.