This is such good advice. You have to keep faith that, if you show up and honor the process, the tap remains open.

the babahuck@tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 3w ago

rip annie dillard

Lonergan, *Method in Theology*, 330

ae@aelkus.bsky.social · 4w ago

this is not going to be a calm, pleasant, and leisurely century. there will be more. and social failures arising from poor politics, civics, and institutions will have a ratchet effect in making reactionary backlashes occur, which further worsen the weak social layers

In my view, Joseph Gordon’s ‘Divine Scripture in Human Understanding’ is the best I’ve read, Protestant or otherwise

Since the Bible isn’t my primary subject area (even if I teach it every term), my answer is going to reflect a certain limitation in reading, but I’m partial to Harvest of Hope (McIntosh/Griswold, a bit “academic light”) and Divine scripture in human understanding (Gordon - scholarly)

A sort of *dialectical traditionalism* if you will.

Anne M. Carpenter@catholickungfu.bsky.social · last mo.

I don't think that treating the Church Fathers with uncritical wonder actually loves the Church Fathers as they deserve. They were serious men asking serious questions. We can demand things of them. We can ask what doesn't work. It is a form of respect to do so.

I enjoyed getting to talk with @josinaguess.bsky.social about my love for and work with snakes earlier this summer. Her lovely piece "In Defense of Snakes" has just come out in this month's @sojo.net magazine:

Sojourners@sojo.net · last mo.

"If we can love snakes, we can learn to love the people we’ve been conditioned to perceive as our enemies—even if that love means keeping an appropriate, healthy distance." sojo.net/magazine/sep...

On October 24 at @setonhall.bsky.social, the Center for Catholic Studies (of which my Lonergan Institute is a part) is hosting an event called "Magnifica Humanitas & Our Shared Future" as part of its "Ethics and Values in the Era of AI" series. QR code in image takes you to registration page.

"Were they deprived of intelligence and became mere observers of fact like jellyfish, then they would be truly positivists, but their positivism would not be of any service to them." Bernard Lonergan.

Anne M. Carpenter@catholickungfu.bsky.social · last mo.

Jellyfish are the only true positivists, sayeth Bernard Lonergan.

“Theology is not the full science of man… theology illuminates only certain aspects of human reality…[&] the church can become a fully conscious process of self-constitution only when theology unites itself with all other relevant branches of human studies.” Lonergan taking prescient shots at RO

Let’s go!!

If there’s one thing Lonergan loved, it’s a little chart

"The most pressing challenge of our contemporary situation is to measure up to the significance of the fact that all human understanding is tied to specific times and places and to think through how this judgment should affect Christian engagement with Scripture." @josephkgordon.bsky.social

I'm excited to talk with the local chapter of @wildonesnatives.bsky.social, @wildones-smokymts.bsky.social tomorrow night (8/26) about our native herpetofauna and strategies for welcoming them to our yards! #Knoxville locals should check it out: smokymountains.wildones.org/events/?wo_e...

Events

smokymountains.wildones.org

I want to take this doctoral seminar with my very good friend who is an awesome theologian and who is using my (!?!?!) book amongst these awesome books! I'm really looking forward to having a conversation with Anne and her students about all this.

Anne M. Carpenter@catholickungfu.bsky.social · 2mo ago

THEOLOGICAL METHODS.

I hope each of you knows that you’ve made today a special day, just by being *you*. There’s no one else in the whole world just like you & there never will be. People can like you (& God loves you) just exactly the way you are.

This years theme for the Season of Creation is “Living Water” based on Ezekiel 47. Check out this ecumenical resource booklet for more theological background and some ideas for services and activities. resources.arocha.org/wp-content/u...

My latest in @commonwealmagazine.org: www.commonwealmagazine.org/conquering-d...

Drop what you’re doing and read this. www.commonwealmagazine.org/conquering-d...

Conquering Death

"When we wonder why death takes a life too soon, we bring forth a more wondrous puzzle: Why are there lives to be taken at all?"

commonwealmagazine.org

I have a short essay in this issue about death and the surprisingly comforting metaphysics of what it means when we call the eternal God "Creator." CW: stillbirth www.commonwealmagazine.org/conquering-d...

Conquering Death

"When we wonder why death takes a life too soon, we bring forth a more wondrous puzzle: Why are there lives to be taken at all?"

commonwealmagazine.org

Commonweal@commonwealmagazine.org · 2mo ago

The September issue is here! Inside: - Terry Eagleton on becoming notorious - @samuelmoyn.bsky.social, Shai Held, and Paul J. Griffiths on universalism - Pedro Gonzalez on Mike Pence - Dorothy Fortenberry on J. D. Vance & Lena Dunham And much more! www.commonwealmagazine.org/issues/2026-...

This article rules. I come back to it a lot.

"Understanding human nature is one thing and understanding human historicity is another. To understand the constant, nature, one may study any individual. But to understand the variable, historicity, one has to study each instance in its singularity." Bernard Lonergan

Balthasar 🤝 Lonergan, there is no Aristotelian science of the particular (which is a problem for it, uh oh)

It is probably a good thing I am only teaching one course next term (subject to enrollment numbers) because if I were teaching more courses I would somehow find a way to bring in Joseph Gordon's Divine Scripture in Human Understanding.

For the herpers: Please read this article and consider. rattlesnakesolutions.com/snakeblog/sc...

In my phd course, Theological Methods, I’m pitting John Behr’s “In Accordance With the Scriptures” “against” Joseph Gordon’s “Divine Scripture In Human Understanding.” (not really against) So we can really have some cognitive dissonance without doing simply historical criticism all by itself.

Anne M. Carpenter@catholickungfu.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I never really know how rightwing Christians turns these stories into the long triumph of Christ, the Aesop fables of religion. Because they’re just not built like that.

I am psyched for these students

Anne M. Carpenter@catholickungfu.bsky.social · 3mo ago

In my phd course, Theological Methods, I’m pitting John Behr’s “In Accordance With the Scriptures” “against” Joseph Gordon’s “Divine Scripture In Human Understanding.” (not really against) So we can really have some cognitive dissonance without doing simply historical criticism all by itself.

I know my Bluesky isn't totally broken, because @teamsocrates.bsky.social @nietzschean.bsky.social and @marcusaurelius2026.bsky.social have all followed me in the past few days. But no love for Bernie? Let me know if you can still see my (admittedly lamely infrequent) posts.

Joseph (Joe) K. Gordon@josephkgordon.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Tell all your friends! Bernard Lonergan: A Primer for Understanding his Life, Work, and Influence (tentative title), is officially at press w/Cascade@wipfandstock.bsky.social Please share with anyone you know interested in theology or philosophy! Here's the Table of Contents:

Lonergan on the “Question of God” in his *Method in Theology*

Jonathan Heaps@jonathanrheaps.bsky.social · 3mo ago

IMO the methodical investigation of God (broadly construed) is non-identical to *either* the methodical investigation of religion, whether from the “outside” (a lot of Religious Studies) or the “inside” (a lot of Theology de facto)

I’m not sure this is *directly* related to admission of error BUT yes: Lonergan thinks the realization that statistical knowledge is *real* knowledge, not just a cloak for ignorance, is of enormous importance for modern epistemology & is a big lesson Cath thought needed to learn from nat science