The Trinitarian Pneumatology of Frederick Crowe, SJ
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And in Our Hearts Take up Thy Rest: The Trinitarian Pneumatology of Frederick Crowe, S.J. by Keith Michael Eades Jr. Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Regis College and the Graduate Centre for Theological Studies of the Toronto School of Theology. In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology awarded by Regis College and the University of Toronto. © Copyright by Keith Michael Eades Jr. 2017 And in Our Hearts Take up Thy Rest: The Trinitarian Pneumatology of Frederick Crowe, S.J. Keith Michael Eades Jr. Doctor of Theology Regis College and the University of Toronto 2017 Abstract By the end of his life, Frederick E. Crowe S.J. (1915-2012) was “widely recognized as the world’s foremost Lonergan expert.”1 Most famous as the inspiration behind ten institutes around the world for promoting the study of Bernard Lonergan (1904-84) and co- editor of the Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, Crowe also modestly sought to expand his fellow Canadian Jesuit’s thought, especially in matters related to the Holy Spirit. Although Crowe’s 1959 article, “Complacency and Concern in the Thought of St. Thomas,”2 has long been considered a “classic”3 and his courses on the Trinity at Regis College in Toronto have been called “legendary,”4 no serious study of Crowe’s thought has ever been undertaken. And in Our Hearts Take up Thy Rest: The Trinitarian Pneumatology of Frederick Crowe is the first dissertation ever written on Crowe. 1 Michael Vertin, “Editor’s Introduction,” in Lonergan and the Level of Our Time, ed. Michael Vertin (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010). 2 Frederick E. Crowe, Three Thomist Studies, ed. Michael Vertin, Supplementary issue of Lonergan Workshop, vol. 16, ed. Fred Lawrence (Boston: Lonergan Institute of Boston College, 2000). Cf. Frederick E. Crowe, S.J., Theological Studies 20.1-3 (1959) 1-39, 198-230, 343-95. 3 Fred Lawrence, ed. Lonergan Workshop: The Structure and Rhythms of Love: In Honor of Frederick E. Crowe, SJ, vol. 13 (Boston: Boston College, 1997) iii. 4 “Father Frederick E. Crowe, S.J., 1915-2012,” Lonergan Research Institute, last modified 2017, accessed 25 April 2017, http://www.lonerganresearch.org/news/father-frederick-e-crowe-s.j-1915-2012/. ii In the dissertation, I claim that Crowe’s reflections on the Holy Spirit go through three stages with two main transition points. Following Crowe’s work from 1953 to 2000, I argue that Crowe’s development should be organized around three main questions: (1) What is the personal property of the Holy Spirit eternally and in time? (2) How is the mission of the Holy Spirit ordered to the mission of the Son? (3) Can the Holy Spirit, as intersubjective Love, be thought of as the first person in the Trinity? In the final chapter, the three stages of Crowe’s development are presented as a series that is unified by his distinction between two kinds of love: complacency (restful serenity) and concern (restless inclining). Although Crowe’s theory of love itself develops, Crowe always maintained that human love provides an analogy for the Holy Spirit’s eternal procession. While Crowe’s pneumatology evolves in response to perceived shifts in Lonergan’s writings, Crowe’s own concerns about the life of the Church also shaped the way he asks his three pneumatological questions. Noting the influences of Newman and Basil of Caesarea on Crowe, I present Crowe’s pneumatology as rooted in the Trinitarian theology of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Bernard Lonergan. Crowe emerges as creatively dedicated to the psychological analogy. iii Dedication For Our Lady and St. Philip iv Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ............................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... viii Introduction............................................................................................................................. 1 Changes to My Proposal .................................................................................................................. 2 State of the Question......................................................................................................................... 3 Methodology – Procedure – Implications ....................................................................................... 5 Crowe’s Writings .............................................................................................................................. 6 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................. 8 Chapter One – Frederick Crowe, S.J.: Dean of First Generation Lonergan Disciples .. 13 Early Years: Home (Canada), Newman, and his Jesuit Vocation ............................................. 15 Lonergan’s Influence on Crowe .................................................................................................... 21 The Influence of the Verbum Articles .......................................................................................... 23 Under the Influence of Insight: A Study of Human Understanding ............................................. 29 Method in Theology’s Influence ................................................................................................... 37 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 48 Part I (1953-1968): Searching for the Proprium of the Holy Spirit ................................. 51 Chapter Two – Appropriating Aquinas on Love ............................................................... 51 The Spirit’s Proprium Emerging as a Theme .............................................................................. 52 Crowe’s Reading of Aquinas’ Doctrine of Complacentia Boni................................................... 59 Application of Complacency to the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit ................................................. 65 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 73 Chapter Three – Basil Helps to Extend the Search into the Economy of Salvation ....... 74 Background to Crowe’s 1965-6 The Doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity ..................................... 75 Conceiving the Personal Properties of the Three in the Godhead as Never Before ................. 80 Moving Away from the Term Spiration ....................................................................................... 84 Discerning the Personal Property of the Three in the World..................................................... 92 The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’s Presence in the World as Exemplars .................................... 93 Presence of Each of the Three in the World in a Proper, Unique and Personal Way .................. 97 Trinitarian Response to Our Need for Trinification ..................................................................... 99 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 106 Bridge between Part I (1953-68) and Part II (1969-84)................................................... 108 Part II (1969-84): Reversing the Relation of the Two Divine Missions ......................... 111 Chapter Four – Who Provides the Context: the Son or the Spirit? ............................... 111 Background: The Relation of the Divine Missions in Crowe’s Earlier Thinking .................. 112 Emergence of the Need to Rethink the Relation of the Missions. ............................................ 120 Full Thematization of the Reversal of the Missions .................................................................. 139 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 147 Chapter Five – Arguing with Church Authorities as Helping to Reverse the Missions ........................................................................................ 151 Crowe’s Struggle with the Magisterium ..................................................................................... 153 v 1. Aftermath of Humanae Vitae ............................................................................................ 153 2. Struggle over Women’s Ordination................................................................................... 159 Rethinking of the Role of the Spirit in Relation to the Son’s Mission ..................................... 165 1. 1983 Lonergan Workshop Lecture: “Son and Spirit: Tensions in the Divine Missions?” 165 2. 1984 Chancellor’s Lecture at Regis College ..................................................................... 178 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 183 Bridge to Part III (1985-2000) ........................................................................................... 184 Part III (1985-2000):