God’s Eternal Yes!: An Exposition and Development of Lonergan’s Psychological Analogy of the Trinity

Abstract

This article presents an overview of Lonergan’s psychological analogy of the Trinity with some proposed clarifications and developments. By way of presentation, it introduces the readers to Lonergan’s early psychological analogy in his Triune God: Systematics in the context of contemporary theological reflection on the Trinity. Two developments are then presented, the first, following Robert Doran, is to develop the analogy as a proceeding Word of affirmation or God’s eternal Yes. Several examples are presented to show the provocative nature of this proposed development including the Church’s relationship with the Jews, Mariology, and Barth’s Christology. Second, I explore an interpretation proposed by Doran in order to reconcile the earlier analogy with Lonergan’s later analogy in light of Ignatian spiritual theology, therefore retaining the fittingness of both analogies. Finally, I propose a qualification of Doran’s fecund solution.