Body-Psyche-Mind in the Self-Appropriation of the Subject: Complexifying Lonergan's Acount of Nature and Supernature

Body-Psyche-Mind in the Self-Appropriation of the Subject: Complexifying Lonergan’s Account of Nature and Supernature Mary Josephine McDonald Doctor of Theology Regis College and the University of Toronto 2014 Abstract In the opening page of Method in Theology, Bernard Lonergan expresses a concern that theology would understand its role at this important juncture in history—a time when the modern world enters a new realm of meaning, one that represents a shift from classicism to interiority. In order to fulfill its task of mediating “between a cultural matrix and the significance and role of a religion in that matrix,” Lonergan states that theology must understand that it is no longer a “permanent achievement,” but rather “an ongoing process.” In proceeding, therefore, theology must become acquainted with the “framework for collaborative creativity” in the “ongoing process” that Lonergan calls method. In addition, Lonergan emphasizes that “a contemporary method would conceive those tasks in the context of modern science, modern scholarship, modern philosophy....” This thesis has sought to “collaborate creatively” with “modern science” in order that both theology and the cultural context might be mutually enriched. By drawing on the insights of the science of neuroplasticity, this thesis undertakes the methodological task involved in developing an understanding of the bodily aspect of the human person in an interiority analysis. Within the eight functional specialties that Lonergan outlines in a contemporary method of theology, this work performs tasks within Foundations. While inclusive of Foundations, the primary goal of this work is the development of a theological anthropology. Development occurs by bringing to light the significance of the body in a theological anthropology. Lonergan’s question, “What in terms of human consciousness is the transition from the natural to the supernatural?” in “Mission and the Spirit,” along with his articulation of the body-psyche-mind relations in his principle of correspondence in Insight, provide the framework for this development. A developed understanding of the body’s role in the transition from the natural to the supernatural furthers Doran’s work on psychic conversion by including “body data” in the self-appropriation of the unconscious. Such an integration of the organic and psychic spontaneities with conscious operations increases the probability of authentic agency in the unfolding of the Reign of God.Doctor of Theology (ThD