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BC Butler's Developing Understanding of Church B. C. Butler’s Developing Understanding of Church: An Intellectual Biography A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Religious Studies of the Catholic University of America in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Copyright All Rights Reserved Sr. Anne T. Flood, S.C, Washington, D.C. 1981 This dissertation was approved by Associate Professor R. Kevin Seasoltz, O.S.B., Ph.D. as director, and by Associate Professor Rev. Roger Balducelli, S.T.D. and Professor Berard L. Marthaler, OFM Conv., S.T.D., Ph.D. as readers. R. Kevin Seasoltz - Director Roger Balducelli - Reader Berard L. Marthaler - Reader TABLE OF CONTENTS B.C. BUTLER’S DEVELOPING UNDERSTANDING OF CHURCH: AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY ... 5 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................6 Bishop Butler: A Biographical Overview ................................................................................................... 8 Butler and Newman ............................................................................................................................ 14 Butler and von Hügel .......................................................................................................................... 16 Butler and Lonergan ........................................................................................................................... 18 Statement of Thesis ................................................................................................................................ 21 The Context ............................................................................................................................................. 22 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 25 The Design ............................................................................................................................................... 28 Organization ........................................................................................................................................ 29 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 29 PART I CONVERSION: BASIL BUTLER’S SUBJECTIVE STORY .................................................... 31 CHAPTER ONE: THE SEARCH FOR THE ONE THING NECESSARY .......................................................... 31 A Reason to Believe ................................................................................................................................ 31 The role of the apologist ..................................................................................................................... 31 Bishop Butler: An ecumenical apologist ............................................................................................. 32 Conversion: A specific task of the apologist ....................................................................................... 33 Butler and the universal question: What is the meaning of life? ....................................................... 34 Unification: Seeking the One Thing Necessary ....................................................................................... 36 The Church: The Fulfillment of the One Thing Necessary ...................................................................... 40 Unification: The contemporary context ............................................................................................. 40 Unification and the future .................................................................................................................. 41 Selfishness: The real obstacle to world unity ..................................................................................... 41 Unification: A moral concern .............................................................................................................. 42 Unification and ecumenism ................................................................................................................ 43 Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 44 CHAPTER TWO: CONSCIENCE—THE AUTHORITY OF THE HEART ........................................................ 45 Introduction: Conscience and the Love of God ...................................................................................... 45 Conscience, Fundamental Option, and the Spiritual Life ....................................................................... 47 Conscience, Authority, and Responsible Freedom ................................................................................. 50 Conscience, the Ethical Imperative, and Conversion .............................................................................. 54 Page 2 of 146 Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 58 CHAPTER THREE: BUTLER’S DIALOGUE WITH BERNARD LONERGAN ................................................... 60 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 60 Butler, the Early Lonergan, and the Second Vatican Council ................................................................. 61 Butler, the Later Lonergan, and the Turn to the Subject ........................................................................ 65 A new synthesis .................................................................................................................................. 67 A silent dialogue .................................................................................................................................. 68 The link ................................................................................................................................................ 72 Conversion .............................................................................................................................................. 74 The question ....................................................................................................................................... 74 Interpretive remarks ........................................................................................................................... 76 Newman on apprehension and assent. .......................................................................................... 76 Lonergan and Butler on conversion and the basic option. ............................................................. 77 Second conversion. ......................................................................................................................... 80 Data of theology ................................................................................................................................. 81 Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 82 PART II FROM THE GREAT CHURCH OF THE PAST TO THE GREAT CHURCH OF THE FUTURE: BASIL BUTLER’S ECCLESIAL STORY ........................................................................................ 83 CHAPTER FOUR: KOINONIA AND INDIVISIBLE VISIBLE UNITY ............................................................ 83 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 83 Crisis of Meaning in Christianity ............................................................................................................. 84 The Emergence of the Question of Visible Unity .................................................................................... 90 Visible Unity: The question for the ecumenical movement ............................................................... 91 The witness of the Great Church of the past ...................................................................................... 94 Reformation views of the Church ..................................................................................................... 100 Toward the Great Church of the Future ............................................................................................... 102 Koinonia and communion in general ................................................................................................ 102 Ecumenism and koinonia .................................................................................................................. 105 Butler’s metachronics and koinonia ................................................................................................. 107 Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 109 CHAPTER FIVE: NEW ORIENTATIONS IN ECCLESIOLOGY: BUTLER ON THE NATURE AND MISSION OF THE CHURCH .................................................................................................................................. 111 Introduction .........................................................................................................................................
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