An Introduction to the Philosophy of Bernard Lonergan. Rev. ed.

L.M. Read was a Philosophy of Religion and Economics professor at
Carleton University.

Meynell’s introduction to the philosophy of the Canadian Jesuit
thinker Bernard Lonergan was first published in 1976. Lonergan’s early
work, Insight, Meynell contends, “is at a conservative estimate one of
a half-dozen or so most important philosophical books to have appeared
in the course of the present century.” The basic “insight” is
“that reality is nothing else than that which comes to be known
through the whole cognitional process of experience, understanding, and
judgement, engaged in by the conscious human subject.” Through this
process (as Thomas Aquinas held and Karl Barth strenuously denied) the
human mind is led up to and becomes prepared to accept the ultimate
revelation in Jesus Christ bestowed by God’s grace. As Meynell admits
(and we must agree), Lonergan “is not at first sight the easiest of
authors to understand.” That Meynell has met this challenge
effectively is demonstrated by the call for this updated, second edition
of his work.