The Plural and Ambiguous Self: The Theological Anthropology of David Tracy Author: Stephen Okey Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104392 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2013 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of Theology THE PLURAL AND AMBIGUOUS SELF: THE THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF DAVID TRACY A Dissertation By STEPHEN OKEY Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2013 © copyright by STEPHEN OKEY 2013 The Plural and Ambiguous Self: The Theological Anthropology of David Tracy Stephen Okey Director: Mary Ann Hinsdale, IHM This dissertation explicates and evaluates the theological anthropology of David Tracy. Through a reading of the whole of Tracy’s published theological corpus, it argues that Tracy’s work on theological method, hermeneutics, public theology, and otherness rests on an implicit and evolving understanding of the human person. This anthropology is rooted in four key characteristics or “anthropological constants”: finitude, relationality, sin, and grace. The methodological approach of the dissertation is genealogical and hermeneutical. Each of these four constants is taken as an interpretive lens through which the dissertation considers the development of Tracy’s thought. This approach will demonstrate first how finitude, relationality, sin, and grace are interwoven in Tracy’s work, and second how the development of his core theological loci of method, interpretation, public-ness, pluralism, and otherness are rooted in these four constants. The text concludes with an evaluation of Tracy’s theology anthropology in light of his context as a North American, late 20th century, Catholic theologian. Tracy’s work provides insight into the interdependence of theological method and anthropology. However, while he attends to the importance of how historical, linguistic, and social context shape human persons, his conceptual approach to context tends to ignore particularity and embodiment. Nevertheless, the four “constants” of Tracy’s theological anthropology could fruitfully engage contemporary currents such as ecotheology and disability theology. This dissertation is the most thorough and sustained foray into the question of David Tracy’s theological anthropology to date, and as such provides a significant contribution to the field of 20th/21st century North American Catholic theology. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Completing a project of this size and duration would be impossible without the help of many. To begin with, I’d like to thank my dissertation committee of Mary Ann Hinsdale, Roberto Goizueta, and Frederick Lawrence. Each of them has generously taken time to read drafts, to help me understand Tracy and his conversation partners, and to challenge me during my time at Boston College. I’d also like to thank the colleagues who helped me out during this process. The Tracy Reading Group that met in the fall of 2010 helped me to formulate my initial sense of Tracy’s anthropology: Mike Avery, Nick DiSalvatore, Nichole Flores, Tim Hanchin, Daryn Henry, Kevin Johnson, and Brian Traska. I’d like to thank Gonzalo Villagran, SJ (Boston College) and William Myatt (Loyola University Chicago), who were also working on dissertations that substantially used Tracy’s theology during the time I was working on mine. Many fellow graduate students also served as sounding boards, editors, and devil’s advocates: Kevin Ahern, Mia Cruz, John Edwards, Katie O’Neill, Lauren Osborne, Amanda Osheim, Bobby Rivera, Marc Rugani, Heather Miller Rubens, Andy Salzmann, John Slattery, John Slotemaker, Andy Staron, and Kevin VanderSchel. I’d also like to thank my parents, Michael and Susan Okey, and my brother, John Okey, for being supportive of my desire to return to graduate studies in theology and pursue a career and vocation as a theologian. I’d especially like to thank Paige Cargioli, who has endured my many late nights of work on this text. Lastly, I’d like to thank David Tracy himself, who on more than one occasion was kind of enough to speak with me about my project and offer ideas and clarifications. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments i Abbreviations v Introduction 1 Biographical Sketch of David Tracy 2 Methodology of the Dissertation 8 Previous Assessments of Tracy’s Theological Anthropology 10 S. Alan Ray 10 Dwight Hopkins 14 Anthropological Constants 16 Overview of the Dissertation 18 1. Theological Anthropology and Theological Method 22 The State of Theological Anthropology 23 The Anthropological Turn 28 Karl Rahner, SJ 31 Bernard Lonergan, SJ 35 Paul Ricoeur 37 Summary 41 Tracy’s Theological Method 42 Methodological Precursors 45 Paul Tillich 45 H. Richard Niebuhr 47 Bernard Lonergan 49 Method in Blessed Rage for Order 51 Critical Correlation in BRO 52 Theological Sub-Disciplines in BRO 57 Method in The Analogical Imagination 60 Mutually Critical Correlation in AI 61 Public Theology 65 Theological Sub-Disciplines in AI 67 Theological Interpretation as Conversation in Plurality and Ambiguity 77 The Relationship between Anthropology and Method 80 2. Finitude 83 Blessed Rage for Order 84 Transcendental Method in BRO 84 Common Human Experience 89 Limits and the Religious Dimension of Human Experience 91 Summary 100 The Analogical Imagination 100 Methodological Shift I: The Contemporary Situation 101 Methodological Shift II: The Limit in Fundamental and Systematic 104 ii Theology The Limit-of and the Whole 106 The Internal Pluralism of the Self 108 Summary 111 Plurality and Ambiguity 113 The Human as Interpreting and Knowing 115 The Limit-of, the Whole, and Ultimate Reality 118 Internal Pluralism and Otherness 121 Summary 124 Dialogue with the Other 126 Conclusion 129 3. Relationality 133 Horizon as Transitional Concept between Finitude and Relationality 134 Public Theology 136 What is “Public” about Public Theology 136 The Two Publics 136 The Three Publics 138 Public Theology and Relationality 145 Tradition 149 Anticipatory Elements in BRO 149 Development in AI 151 Distortions within a Tradition 155 Traditions as Relational 157 Conversation 158 Beginnings in AI 158 Further Development in PA and DWO 161 Conversation and Tradition 164 Human Relations with God 165 The Limit as Revelatory of Relationship 165 The Whole in AI 171 Transformation to the Other 174 Conclusion 178 4. Sin 180 The Relationship between Sin and Finitude 181 The Neo-Orthodox Model of Theology 183 Rahner and Sin 187 The Inevitable Fact of Evil and Sin 190 Tracy’s Three Dimensions of Sin 192 Actual Personal Sin 193 Habitual Sin 197 Inherited or Original Sin 198 Systemic Distortion as Personal 199 Systemic Distortion in History 201 Systemic Distortion in Communication 206 iii Systemic Distortion in Religion 211 Distortion and Inherited Sin 214 Relations Among the Three Dimensions 215 Conclusion 216 5. Grace 218 Nature-Grace and Sin-Grace 219 The Uncanny and Grace 223 Fundamental Trust in BRO 224 Uncanny in AI 225 Uncanny in PA 228 Jesus Christ 229 Christ as Representation in BRO 229 Christ as Divine Self-Manifestation in AI 232 Forms of Mediation 237 Analogical Imagination 238 Manifestation 238 Proclamation 242 Historical Action 248 Shift in Dialogue with the Other 253 Mystical 255 Prophetic 257 Action 258 Salvation, Liberation, and Transformation 261 Freedom 265 Conclusion 272 6. Tracy’s Anthropology: Toward a Preliminary Assessment 274 Tracy’s Contributions 275 Critiques of Tracy’s Anthropology 280 Trajectories for Further Development 288 Summary 294 Bibliography 298 iv ABBREVIATIONS ABL Tracy, David. The Achievement of Bernard Lonergan. New York: Herder and Herder, 1970. AI Tracy, David. The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism. New York: Crossroad, 1981. BRO Tracy, David. Blessed Rage for Order, the New Pluralism in Theology. New York: Seabury Press, 1975. DWO Tracy, David. Dialogue with the Other: The Inter-Religious Dialogue. Louvain Theological & Pastoral Monographs 1. Louvain: Peeters Press, 1991. MT Lonergan, Bernard J.F. Method in Theology. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. NCFT Tracy, David. “The Necessity and Character of Fundamental Theology.” Lecture, Loyola University of Chicago, 1:27:11. April 8, 2011. http://webapps.luc.edu/ignation/video-detail.cfm?id=2120034320 (Part I) and http://webapps.luc.edu/ignation/video-detail.cfm?id=1206034756 (Part II) ONP Tracy, David. On Naming the Present: Reflections on God, Hermeneutics, and Church. Maryknoll, N.Y: Orbis Books, 1994. PA Tracy, David. Plurality and Ambiguity: Hermeneutics, Religion, Hope. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987. v INTRODUCTION David Tracy is widely considered to be one of the most important American Catholic theologians of the twentieth century. During a career spanning six decades, he has made substantial contributions through his work on public theology, hermeneutics, and theological method. Sometimes called “a theologian’s theologian,” his work, as well as his generous spirit, has influenced theologians, philosophers, and other scholars both internationally and across religious traditions. While his best-known and most cited works have focused on questions of what he would call fundamental theology, Tracy has lamented that his contributions to systematic and doctrinal issues have generally been ignored by his readers and interlocutors.1 Both his Blessed Rage for Order and Analogical