Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Ontological and Psychological Constitution of Christ

Titel: The Ontological and Psychological Constitution of Christ

Stichwort: Person (Elemente d. Definition); Existenz; Konversion, übernatürliche Mittel; Sinne, Vernunft, Glaube

Kurzinhalt: The less reason is perturbed by the life of the senses, the more effectively will faith be able to enlighten reason. And the more effectively faith enlightens reason, the more fruitfully will reason, thus enlightened, attain with God's help some ...

Textausschnitt: 10 Supernatural Means (eü)

35/1 10 For this reason, means that directly regard the goal must be added to indirect means. The goal is that a human being 'exist,' that human rationality go from a potency to dominate to actually exercising complete and perfect control. To this end the direct means is a certain deep and radical conversion that is conscious and deliberate. Normally the first step towards this conversion is that one suspect, discover, and admit, at least to oneself, that one is not yet converted. For if the keen mind of Augustine thought for years that only material bodies were real, those less gifted than Augustine generally differ from him not in that they perceive that being is the really real and that non-being is nothing, but rather in the fact that through their confusion and indecision they have never clearly and distinctly conceived the problem, much less definitively settled it. (25f; Fs) (notabene)

36/1 Supernatural means are far more efficacious than these natural means, direct or indirect. Although we are naturally endowed with that intending intention of being that is a participated likeness of uncreated light, and with that natural desire that is not at rest until being-by-essence is known through its essence,1 still we do not proceed toward this end by natural means.2 Our justification, by which the sensitive element of our being is subject to our reason and our reason to God,3 is the supernatural effect of the free gift of divine love4 inasmuch as God operates in us so that we may be able to cooperate with God.5 (27; Fs)

37/1 This supernatural conversion which, although primarily directed towards the goal of eternal life, includes natural conversion, also carries along with it that by which one can 'exist' even in this life. One who was brought up in the Catholic faith learned even as a child that spiritual things are real; one who holds to Catholic dogmas arrives at what is real by what is true; one who agrees with the [First] Vatican Council cannot make light of that understanding of the mysteries commended by the Council; and one who, following the lead of the church, pursues theology according to the principles, method, and doctrine of St Thomas Aquinas,6 must at least suspect that we advance in knowledge by questioning, since the whole of Thomas's theology consists in asking questions and answering them. (27; Fs)

38/1 Since this is so, it cannot be denied that our faith and, in its proper place, Catholic theology penetrate and direct the whole human mind in such a way as effectively and profoundly to invite, entice, and almost force one toward Existenz. And yet, 'let one who is just be further justified' (DB 803, DS 1335). One who has received the grace that makes a human being whole, righteous, and just should strive, with the help of grace, that grace be further increased.7 The more completely reason is subject to God and the sense appetite to reason, the less does the sensitive element obscure and darken the rational. The less reason is perturbed by the life of the senses, the more effectively will faith be able to enlighten reason. And the more effectively faith enlightens reason, the more fruitfully will reason, thus enlightened, attain with God's help some understanding of the mysteries of faith. (27f; Fs)