Critically Embracing Development and Pluralism: A Postfoundationalist Reading of Bernard Lonergan on the Hermeneutics of Doctrine

Abstract

In the postmodern era, the assumption that there can and should be firm, reasoned foundations for human knowledge and action – foundations demonstrable to any rational person – is questioned and often abandoned. This presents a profound challenge to a Catholic understanding of the truth and meaningfulness of doctrinal statements. This thesis presents a response based on the thought of Bernard Lonergan. The postmodern critique has both epistemological and hermeneutical implications and significant responses offered by Reformed theologians are examined. As a possible basis for a specifically Catholic response and as a preface to engaging with Lonergan, John Henry Newman’s account of faith in his Grammar of Assent (which deeply influenced Lonergan) and his treatment of doctrinal development are considered. The development of Lonergan’s thought is then examined in detail, with the aim of demonstrating that his understanding of truth and knowledge can underpin a hermeneutics of doctrine that does not repeat the shortcomings of foundationalist modes of thinking. The focus of Lonergan’s early works is the authentic interpretation of St Thomas Aquinas and he remains a Thomist when he later elaborates his own proposal for theological method. I argue that, given that reading Aquinas as a ‘classical foundationalist’ has been found erroneous, the charge cannot be applied to Lonergan either. Proper attention to the Thomist character of his thought allows a reading of Lonergan’s method as a postfoundationalist critical hermeneutics. Such a hermeneutics can give an ‘account’ of Christian hope (1 Peter 3:15) that is not foundationalist, holds in balance the demands of orthodoxy and legitimate pluralism, and does justice to the Catholic understanding of the act of faith as one that is ecclesial as well as individual. This is an original reading, drawing out themes underdeveloped in the secondary literature, and retrieving Lonergan as a resource for contemporary theology.