Lonergan on Wisdom

Abstract

This article surveys Lonergan’s transposition of wisdom from Aquinas. While the latter contained metaphysical and epistemological aspects, Lonergan attempts to provide an additional type of wisdom upon which the principles of the two aspects are grounded. In addition, the article addresses the natural and supernatural forms of wisdom in Lonergan’s thinking. Finally, while Frederick Crowe refers to the ‘strange disappearance’ of wisdom explicitly from Lonergan’s later writing, especially Method in Theology, it is argued that the function of wisdom not only remains but permeates it. ¹