Abstract
In the final, posthumously published, volume of The Trinity in History, Robert Doran advances his innovative departure from the methodological binary of discovery and teaching as he reflects on how creative dependence on the Trinity shapes the movements of history. Employing the third way of what he terms “a systematic grasp of genetic advance” (5), D. sets out from Bernard Lonergan’s synthetic insight that the two Trinitarian missions are the eternal processions of the Son and Holy Spirit joined to “contingent external terms” unfolding in history. Following his commitment to drawing on theory to align redemption with the emergence of the reign of God in cosmic process, D. integrates two focal theological tasks of clarifying doctrine and presenting systematic understanding with just action for liberating the oppressed and caring for creation. After a sometimes-arduous journey through the previous volumes, seven concluding chapters illuminate D.’s itinerary and the final years of his remarkable life contribution.
Before adding eight final theses to the ninety claims developed in the previous volumes, D. resumes the features of his project and reframes the challenge he is addressing. In this reader’s appreciation, by developing Lonergan’s active appropriation of the Augustinian-Thomist psychological analogy for the Trinity, D. draws insightful attention to the doctrinal and theological achievements focused on core teachings about the Trinity, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Incarnation, and the promise of final beatific intimacy in eternal life. Beyond anticipating the reach of these achievements to address allied theological issues, D. addresses the critical issue confronting faith-informed praxis. Why do religious meanings and values fail to influence more profoundly the vital, social, and cultural structures and values shaping the movements of history, especially as these movements are marked today by the complex transcultural and interreligious intermixing of world society?
Technically inclined students and seasoned interpreters of Lonergan will find D.’s discussion of premotion a helpful bridge to understanding Lonergan’s journey in integrating religious meanings and the structures of history. Acknowledging Lonergan’s insights into the limitations imposed on creative, transformative action by history’s prior moments, D. decompresses the young Lonergan’s compact, intuitive references to grace with a discussion of the roles of interior reflection and discernment enabled by the mature Lonergan’s cognitional theory. Noting the influence of Lonergan’s maturing analysis on more deterministic readings of the Aristotelean notion of premotion, D. highlights the significance of the differentiated activities of perception, understanding, judgment, and deliberation in more self-aware and intentional historical engagement. He develops a fruitful comparison of the tension between premotion and emergence with the contention between the limitations of language and expressions of creative human agency. Drawing on these insights, D. advances reflections on his previous work on the dialectics of history and more recent explorations of the visible and invisible Trinitarian structure active in cosmic process. D. begins to overcome the chasm between religious meaning and vital, social, and cultural structures by drawing into relief a cascading series of resonant contentions.
In his concise discussion of redemption as mediating and mediated, readers will find D.’s signature contribution in this volume. After locating the reach and limitation of the notion of redemption within a range of other similar efforts, D. differentiates the mediated end of redemption as the “inbreaking of the reign of God into history” and the mediating “catalytic process” of redemption as “fidelity to the just and mysterious law of the cross” to return good for evil (Thesis 92). By relieving the compact expression of redemption into the contention between mediating process and mediated goal, D. can proceed critically in refracting the influences of religious meaning on praxis for justice. The redemptive process of returning good for evil is the way the reign of God breaks into history. The redemptive goal is satisfying the demand for justice for the oppressed and restoring the dignity of all creation. The Paschal Mystery and the Church are at the service of redemption, but neither is its goal.
As a competent editor, Joseph Ogbonnaya aids his suddenly departed colleague by encapsulating the author’s completed chapters with a short preface and carefully compiled endnotes. Readers previously daunted by D.’s dense works will appreciate the terse style of the chapters as they telegraph creative insights. This almost skeletal text brings the reader close to the intimate flow of the author’s thoughts. Elaborations that an author with more time might have developed anticipating objections do not burden the chapters. Readers approaching the volumes of Trinity in History for the first time might even consider reading this lucid, concluding volume first.