The Divine Initiative: Grace, World-Order and Human Freedom in the Early
Writings of Bernard LonerganThe Divine Initiative: Grace, World-Order and Human Freedom in the Early
Writings of Bernard LonerganBy J. Michael Stebbins
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995)
This book is available for $65 from the publisher (800) 565-9523 or (416) 667-7791.
Bernard Lonergan spent much of his early career grappling with Thomas Aquinas' monumental effort at "thinking out the Christian universe." What he learned from Aquinas reinforced the basis of a theological paradigm whose main lines would remain intact throughout all of his subsequent work.
The Divine Initiative explores Lonergan's comprehensive position on the doctrines of grace and providence formulated in his early writings, paying particular attention to the unpublished treatise De ente supernaturali (On Supernatural Being). J. Michael Stebbins's investigation uncovers a theological synthesis of remarkable assimilative capacity. A key to Lonergan's position is his sophisticated understanding of the structured but dynamic process that characterizes the order of the created universe. Lonergan considers grace a particular instance of God's providential activity in human living and in the cosmos as a whole. On the strength of his inquiries into Aquinas's positions on the meaning of causality, free will, sin, and divine transcendence, Lonergan explains why God's governance of all created activity is compatible with the contingence of created events in general and with human freedom in particular.
Lonergan's conclusions are made possible by his insistence that a correct understanding of the elements of Thomist metaphysics must be grounded in an accurate grasp of human cognitional process. In the words of reviewer Michael Vertin of the Department of Philosophy at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, "Stebbins understands the material so thoroughly that he is able to link Lonergan's claims in fresh ways, offer original examples, and thus teach the reader what Lonergan is getting at." Or as Robert Doran of the Lonergan Research Institute of the University of Toronto writes, "The Divine Initiative is an invaluable resource and a major contribution to Lonergan studies . . . Stebbins has laid out [the] material . . . with a thoroughness and clarity that will be extraordinarily valuable to many people."
Reviews of The Divine Initiative have been very favorable.
J. Michael Stebbins is Senior Fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University and Director of the Arrupe Program in Social Ethics for Business.
