Philosophy of education 10:2
Sku: 21000A0E050
Archival Number: CD/mp3 210
Author: Lonergan, B.
Language(s): English
Decade: 1950
Description:
CD/mp3 210, second part of tenth and final Cincinnati lecture on philosophy of education. Corresponds to CWL 10: 247-57. Sponsored by Rev. William Babineau. The teaching of religion and theology will be an enormous problem until the full impact of the development of the historical sciences has been absorbed. The proper teaching of religion and theology entails mastering biblical theology and the transition to the dogmas of the church, and understanding all this in the light of a systematic theology. The danger is a one-sided approach: either simply biblical theology, or simply the technical formulations. Lonergan moves next to the problem of general history. What stands to general history as knowledge of mathematics stancs to the history of mathematics? The fundamental problem in general history is that the reality with which it deals is not a conceptualization. It is communicated artistically. The earlier analysis of the good as a developing object provides a set of categories of what really is going forward in such a reality. There is an invariant structure, and differentials that bring about change in civilization and culture. There are principles of decline, and there is redemption. There are levels of integration. All of this provides a philosophic a priori for the study of history. Historical relativism is eliminated to a certain extent by moving from below upwards, but there is also needed the movement from above downward. But there is going to be a pluralism, and it should be accepted. Historical intelligibility contains elements of necessity, but in general it will be possibility, and it is not without the surd or without mystery. The possibilities of resisting determinism are heightened by Christian hope, which enables us to stand by the truth and what is right no matter what the consequences.