Mark Bosco and David Stagaman, eds. Finding God in All Things: Celebrating Bernard Lonergan, John Courtney Murray, and Karl Rahner (New York: Fordham University, 2007), 221 Pps., $50.00
Mark Bosco, S.J., is Assistant Professor in the Departments of Theology and English at Loyola University Chicago, and author of Graham Greene’s Catholic Imagination. David Stagaman, S.J., is Professor of Theology at Loyola University Chicago, the author of Authority in the Church, and principal editor of Wittgenstein and Religion. Together, these two editors have compiled twelve different essays on three of the most influential Catholic theologians of the twentieth century – Bernard Lonergan, John Courtney Murray, and Karl Rahner. This collection of essays presents a sampling of many lectures given at various places in reference to the 100th anniversary of the births of Lonergan, Murray, and Rahner, all who were born in 1904, at the height of the Roman Catholic Church’s rhetoric against all things considered ‘modern’. In this culture of suspicion, Lonergan, Murray, and Rahner joined the Jesuits and by the time of their mature work in the 1950s and 1960s, they had helped to shape the critical dialogue between modern thought and contemporary RCC theology. After the Second Vatican Council, they brought the RCC into closer relationship to modern philosophy, history, and politics.
The book begins with an introduction by Bosco that gives the reader some background material requisite for placing the scholars under discussion into their proper contexts, and also gives a preview of the remaining chapters of the book. The heart of the book consists of four essays concerning each of the three men, with those related to Lonergan beginning the volume. Donald L. Gelpi initiates the discussion of Lonergan by giving concise treatment to his major positions in theological methodology and provides what he thinks are the primary issues of the contemporary application of Lonergan’s work. In so doing, he is critical of Lonergan’s endorsement of Kantian transcendental logic, and thus supplements it by the pragmatic philosophy of C.S. Peirce, contending that Peirce provides a sounder philosophical grounding than does Kant for Lonergan’s work. Patrick H. Byrnes explicates Lonergan’s usage of the phrase ‘the passionateness of being’, showing how this self-appropriation is connected to theology and how it becomes the major task of theology. In one of the most important chapters of the book, in my humble opinion, Elizabeth A. Murray delves into Lonergan’s view of human understanding in order to find the ‘key’ to his philosophy. She notes that Lonergan begins with human interiority, and that as such, Lonergan’s philosophy helps one avoid the denial or neglect of self which is common in empiricism, rationalism, and phenomenology. John C. Haughey uses the recent discovery of a mutated gene in primates about 2.4 million years ago that allowed larger brain size as a springboard into a discussion about Lonergan’s advocation of ‘emergent probability’, a view that describes how the accumulation of data helps account for the complex interdependency of evolution, both biological and cultural.
The second set of essays concern J.C. Murray, who was a staunch advocate of religious tolerance and political pluralism. Michael J. Schuck highlights the important relationship of Murray’s philosophical positions and his immigrant roots in New York City, highlighting that they depend upon an immigrant’s vision of human freedom, genuineness of dialogue, and hard work. Mark Williams, the nephew of Murray, offers perhaps the most personal contribution of the volume. Williams provides insightful anecdotes into the life of his uncle, displaying the humanity of Murray. In perhaps the most convoluted contribution of the text, Leon Hooper describes Murrays ‘hatred’ toward the idea of Americanism, the professors at Catholic university of America, Protestants in general, and atheists in particular; I say ‘convoluted’ because I do not think that Hooper has adequately shown how Murray came to in fact love one’s enemies, though the title of the essay connotes that Murray did in fact do so (’Murray on loving One’s Enemies’, i.e.). Thomas Hughson ends the discussion of Murray by explicating his relationship between the American experience and the legacy of RCC political thought.
The last set of four essays concern Rahner, and is begun by the contribution of Leo J. O’Donovan, who argues that Rahner rightly qualifies as a ‘postmodern’ theologian and that there is a running critique modernity throughout his writings. Having studied under Rahner, Harvey D. Egan provides a personal reflection upon Rahner, noting that while there were many influences upon him, Rahner’s own contention was that the Christian mystics and his Jesuit predecessors had the most significant impact upon his work; Egan then asserts that Rahner deserves the appellation of ‘Doctor Mysticus’ of the Church. George E. Griener extends O’Donovan’s and Egan’s line of thinking, averring that Rahner should be understood as a pastoral theologian, especially in view of the German world in which Rahner lived. James Voiss offers the final constructive essay of the volume, pairing Rahner up with Hans Urs von Balthasar in an attempt to find a conciliatory reading of these two important thinkers in the twentieth century. Voiss essentially responds to Balthasar’s critiques of Rahner by offering a highly nuanced of Rahner’s theology.
The book ends with a postscript from one of the editors, Stagaman, that asserts in order to understand these three philosophers, one must first understand the influence upon the three by the professor of philosophy at the University of Louvain named Joseph Maréchal. All in all, these original essays celebrate the legacies of Lonergan, Murray, and Rahner after a century of theological development. They are written by leading scholars, friends, and family members, and offer a broad range of perspectives on their lives and works. Some of the essays are personal and anecdotal, whereas others are academic, and still others are somewhere in between these two poles. Together, they offer an accessible introduction to the distinctive character of three great thinkers. The editors note that their aim is to give the reader a multifaceted composite that honors each man’s contributions and shows the continued importance and relevance of that contribution to contemporary theological discourse. I view them to have succeeded in their goal.
Bradford McCall,
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