LONERGAN WORKSHOP Volume 7 LONERGAN WORKSHOP Volume 7 edited by Fred Lawrence Copyright © 1988 Boston College ISSN 0148-2009 Scholars Press Atlanta, Georgia Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Ii Editor's Note It is great to have Patrick H. Byrne once again lead off our issue of Lonergan Workshop. As the mainstay of Boston College's "New SCientific Visions" year of its PERSPECTIVES Program, Pat uses Lonergan's way of heeding Einstein's famous advice to pay attention to what scientists do rather than to what they say to reveal how the exact sciences no less than systematic theology or poetry provide a window upon the mystery of the Cosmic Word. Here we have a sample of the way Pat works in a paper on the foundations of modern mathematics. We are always honored to have a contribution from the seemingly tireless and ever creative Frederick E. Crowe, President of Toronto's Lonergan Institute and Editor-in-Chief of Lonergan's Collected Works. His paper complements his oft­ cited earlier essay on Lonergan's notion of value: and it gives us an idea of the shape Method in Theology might have taken if Lonergan had written it after having reached the full clarity he attained in the 1970s about consciousness's two ways 'from­ below-upwards' and 'from-above-downwards.' Fr. Crowe's close associate at the Institute and Co-editor, Robert M. Doran, specifies with helpful precision the affective dimensions of the times of Ignatian discernment in his essay: it integrates feelings and cognitive structure in order to clarify dialectic for us in a way that only one who has explored the psyche as well as lived the Spiritual Exercises could undertake to do. 111 iv Editor's Note Fr. Crowe's outstanding student and professor at the seminary in Buffalo, Peter Drilling, offers us one of the all-too­ rare applications of Lonergan's categories to the theological thinking-through of the pastoral issue of preaching and hearing God's Word. Charles Hefling's dialectical treatment of Schleiermacher is one of the best pieces on that great nineteenth-century theologian I have ever read. It ranks with work by Barth, Gadamer, and by Gadamer's student, Heinz Kimmerle, providing a virtually definitive account of the apparent similarity between him and Lonergan long since suggested by theologians such as Langdon Gilkey and George Lindbeck. Glenn "Chip" Hughes makes his first appearance in Lonergan Workshop as co-author with one of our perennial contributors, Sebastian Moore, in an article which combines richness of literary allusiveness with depth of psychological understanding. It helps to illuminate the interplay of cognitional structure and affectivity as they develop and mediate each other. Chip's fellow Washington native, the genial teacher and scholar Thomas J. McPartland, also joins the ranks of our newcomers in this issue. His paper shows how fertile the relationship between the kind of intellectual history plied by his colleagues Eugene Webb and Rodney Kilcup and the seminal suggestiveness of Lonergan's thought can be. The papers of Kenneth Melchin, Quentin Quesnell, and Terry Tekippe operate more strictly within Lonergan's sets of basic terms and relations. Ken Melchin's dense and rather technically expressed essay supplies us with an amazingly terse summary of the ideas spelled out in a more leisurely fashion in his recent book, History, Ethics and Emergent Probability: Editor's Note v Ethics, Society and History in the work of Bernard Lonergan (University Press of America, 1987). Quentin, who is a man of so many parts, brings the professional competence of scripture scholar to an exposition of Lonergan's interpretation theory. Quentin has a knack for avoiding unnecessary complexity that is unusual among Lonergan exegetes. This avoidance is utterly for the sake of clarifying the real complications of the issues he treats. Terry Tekippe, longtime Editor (with the late Michael O'Callaghan) of the essential Lonergan Newsletter, is like Ken a newcomer to this journal. He shares with Quentin this bent for being clear in his meditation on Lonergan's structure of the human good vis-a.-vis the contemporary criSis. Bernard J. Tyrrell returns to the pages of our journal with a piece in which he once again displays his acumen for returning to the sources underlying Lonergan's treatment of some important issue. This time the issue is feelings as intentional responses to values in Method in Theology. Bernie uses great sensitivity and economy in comparing and contrasting Lonergan's thoughts with those upon whom he depended. Finally we must once again thank all those workers without whom this isue of Lonergan Workshop would never see the light of day: word-processors, Paul and Paulette Kidder and Marcia Mulligan: manuscript editor and general factotum, Charles Hefling: business manager. Pat Byrne: and the many proofreaders. especially Pat Brown. FRED LAWRENCE Boston College CONTENTS Editor's Note iii Mystery and Modem Mathematics Patrick H. Byrne 1 An Expansion of Lonergan's Notion of Value Frederick E. Crowe, S.J. 35 Duality and Dialectic Robert M. Doran, S.J. 59 Preaching: A Mutual Self-Mediation of the Word of God, a Preacher, and a Congregation Peter Drilling 85 The Meaning of God Incarnate according to Friedrich Schleiermacher: or, Whether Lonergan is Appropriately Regarded as 'A Schleiermacher for Our Time,' and Why Not Charles C. Hejling. Jr. 105 Hamlet and the Affective Roots of Decision Glenn Hughes and Sebastian Moore 179 Meaning, Mystery, and the History of ConSCiousness Thomas J. McPartland 203 History, Ethics, and Emergent Probability Kenneth R. Melchin 269 Pinning Down the Meaning Quentin Quesnell 295 The Crisis of the Human Good Terry J. Tekippe 313 Feelings as Apprehensive-Intentional Responses to Values Bernard J. Tyrrell, S.J. 331 vii CONIRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE Patrick H. Byrne Thomas J. McPartland Department of Philosophy Department of Philosophy Boston College Seattle University Chestnut Hill. MA 02167 Seattle. WA 98122 Frederick E. Crowe. S.J. Kenneth R. Melchin Lonergan Research Institute Department of Theology 10 St. Mary Street, Suite 500 Saint Paul University Toronto. Ontario M4Y 1P9 Ottawa. Ontario CANADA CANADA Robert M. Doran. S.J. Sebastian Moore Lonergan Research Institute Department of Theology 10 St. Mary Street. Suite 500 Boston College Toronto. OntariO M4Y 1P9 Chestnut Hill. MA 02167 CANADA Peter Drilling Quentin Quesnell Christ the King Seminary Department of Religion Post Office Box 160 Smith College Buffalo. NY 14052 Northampton. MA 01063 Charles C. Hefling. Jr. Terry J. Tekippe Department of Theology Lonergan Studies Newsletter Boston College 2901 South Carrollton Avenue Chestnut Hill. MA 02167 New Orleans. LA 70118 Glenn Hughes Bernard J. Tyrrell. S.J. Department of Philosophy Department of Philosophy Boston College Gonzaga University Chestnut Hill. MA 02167 Spokane. WA 99258 viii MYSTERY AND MODERN MATHEMATICS Patrick H. Byrne Boston College INTRODUCTION This paper came out of my attempt to contribute to the theme of the 1981 Lonergan Workshop- "The Mind and the Mystery of Christ." I have attempted to explore that theme from my own scholarly speciality. namely the philosophy of science and mathematics. The title of my contribution suggests a connection between mystery and modern mathematics. a connection which must seem baffling to both practitioners of present-day Christianity and to contemporary mathematicians. On the one hand. mathematics is taken to be a complete. comprehensive. closed. logically rigorous and systematic discipline. Mathematicians. it is held. postulate basic concepts and axioms from which all of mathematical knowledge can be logically deduced. thereby yielding a systematic organization in which nothing is left out. The supporters of such a view extol mathematics not only for its completeness. but for its rationality. which is taken to be its ability to systematically face up to the consequences of its position no matter how startling. Detractors from mathematics so understood attribute its successes to arbitrary definition and manipulations of abstract symbols. They detect therein totalitarian ambitions to dominate nature and humanity. to eliminate every vestige of what is irreducibly human (the Lebensweltl. as well as every vestige of religious mystery. Mystery. on the other hand. is taken to be that which is properly unintelligible and irrational. that which runs counter to and defies comprehension. Those who cherish and praise mystery do so precisely because it disrupts oppressive 'rational' 2 Byrne orderliness (even at times citing 1 Corinthians 1: 17-25 in support of their position, in a way which fails to distinguish between the reality and the pretense of rationality). Those who find the notion of mystery repulsive do not disagree with their opponents about the nature of mystery. To them it is indeed the force of irrationality which threatens to plunge the world into nihilism. They disagree only with the positive evaluation held by the proponents of mystery. This apparent conflict between mystery and modern mathematics, and the real conflict between various groups identifying themselves with one pole or the other, constitute a deep and serious problem within our contemporary culture. It is my intention here to show how the work of Bernard Lonergan can help in clearing a way toward the resolution of these conflicts. My effort is divided into three parts. First, a discussion of Lonergan's interpretation of Mystery will be presented, along with a brief consideration of the way Mystery differs from the irrational forces of nihilism. Second, a ~1.istorical outline of the evolution of the modern mathematical concept of infinity will be presented. In the third section, the historical outline will be transposed into the framework of intentionality analysis. This analysis will reveal that the link between Mystery and modern mathematical understanding of infinity is to be located in the self-transcending dynamism of human consciousness, the unrestricted desire to know and love.