(6) What the Book Is Not

What the Book Is Not

The present work by no means replaces or attempts to replace Lonergan’s work. Also, though I recover an important part of that work here, duplication is not my intent—unless, of course, duplication means this work attempts to inspire in you what Lonergan means by self-appropriation and the many other insights Lonergan was about. In this case, and as a teacher, I would take the charge of duplication as the greatest of compliments.

Furthermore, this is not a survey of cognitional or epistemological theories. Because of my focus on pedagogical method, transcendental method, and specific aspects of the self-appropriation process, I do not recover every available or related theory here; though of course, some theories and parts of theories will resonate well with those presented here. A good theory, indeed, should resonate in equivalent fashion with aspects of all other movements of good theory, and of all human knowledge.

In a lecture at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1974 in Geneva, New York, Lonergan reflects:


We cannot chart the future . . . Our course is in the night, our control is only rough and approximate. We have to believe and trust, to risk and dare. (In Crowe, 2002)


Though it may seem so at times, I also do not claim or want to eliminate the element of mystery from human being or from the human quest in history. On the contrary, theory reveals, and self-appropriation identifies with, the fount of regard for all that is unknown, that is, mysterious. This work should deepen that regard and give it strength; it should intensify the faith-belief intention-quest by showing how it manifests in all human thought, speech, and act; and it should increase your awareness of that mystery by sharpening your awareness of your fundamental, given, and dynamic relationship to it. It also will expose the power, but also the limitations, of all human knowledge.

Neither do I want to provide a shortcut to human wisdom or even to what Lonergan calls intellectual conversion (1972); for I know that a short route to either is no route at all. On the other hand, discussing such issues often increases the movement towards their actual occurrence in us. And though there is no guarantee of your having these or any insights, the early chapters are theoretical but also literary attempts to have such a conversion-towards-meaning occur in you.

And so, especially, I do not want to abbreviate or play-down your need to commit to a lifelong journey of reflection and self-reflection. On the contrary, I want to help you locate and understand its constant calling in you, and its importance to you, by helping you discover such potential as already-given to your being as human.