Analecta Gregoriana 324. Rome: Pontificio Istituto Biblico and Gregorian & Biblical Press, 2015. Pp. 518. Pb, 37 euros.

This book is a compilation of the contributions of scholars from five continents to a conference held in the Pontifical Gregorian University in November, 2013. The organizers of the conference intended both to acknowledge the fiftieth anniversary of Vatican ii (1962–65) and to highlight the relevance of the thought of Bernard Lonergan, S.J. (1904–84), who taught at the Gregorian from 1953 to 1965, to the ongoing implementation of Vatican ii.

The threefold structure of the collection reflects the structure of the conference itself. The first part consists of major papers and responses to them; the second, of contributions to panel discussions; the third, of reports by participants on areas of research and practical application in which they are involved.

Especially noteworthy among the major papers are two by American theologians. Fred Lawrence provides a lengthy and insightful account of Lonergan’s search for a hermeneutics of authenticity. Matthew Lamb offers intimate reflections on his conversations with Lonergan while a student at the Gregorian. The former clearly situates Lonergan in relation to Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002), Thomas Aquinas (1225–74), and Augustine (354–430); the latter vividly displays Lonergan’s commitment to the renovation of theology by way of the development of “a genuinely Catholic interiority that is at once intellectual, moral, and Trinitarian” (79). Readers who wonder what lies at the core of Lonergan’s methodical approach will find British philosopher Andrew Beards’s paper on Lonergan’s fundamental conception of generalized empirical method especially illuminating. The Australian theologian Neil Ormerod provides a nuanced discussion of Lonergan’s treatment of questions surrounding interreligious dialogue, in particular the preservation of “an explicitly Christian perspective […] while taking seriously the influence of the universal Gift of the Holy Spirit” (13). The Italian Jesuit theologian Massimo Pampaloni provides an illustration of the Lonergan’s functional specialty of dialectic at work. The late Irish professor of English literature Michael Paul Gallagher’s account of four ways in which Lonergan offers “therapy for confused cultures” is brought to bear upon the African context in a final paper by African theologian Joseph Ogbonnaya.

The panel presentations in part two pertain to three areas of application of Lonergan’s method: interreligious and ecumenical dialogue in India, Korea, and French-speaking Europe; the social sciences, in macroeconomics, psychology, and bioethics; and the university, on Lonergan’s account of the process of learning and of functional specialization, on the use of Lonergan’s generalized empirical method in faculty development, and on the relevance of Lonergan’s method to interdisciplinary collaboration.

The third part of the book consists of brief accounts of applications of Lonergan’s thought in the retrieval of the church fathers, church councils, and mystics; in the formation of Christian ministers; in dealing with the tension between pluralism and unity in church practice; in addressing the issues of the role of women in the church, ecology, and canon law; in addressing issues in education, peace studies, economics, and public health.

This book is an impressive testament to the depth and breadth of Lonergan’s intellectual contribution as well as a convincing illustration of its pertinence not only to the questions surrounding the ongoing implementation of Vatican ii but, more broadly, to meeting the educational, social, economic, and cultural challenges with which globalization confronts us.

DOI 10.1163/22141332-00401005-28