The Place of the Heart in Lonergan's Ethics: The Role of Feelings in the Ethical Intentionality Analysis of Bernard Lonergan

This century has witnessed a surge in philosophical interest on the issue of feelings and their role in human experience, both intellectual and ethical. One philosopher and theologian for whom feelings gradually became a central facet of his understanding of human ethical intentionality was Bernard Lonergan, S.J. In his text Method in Theology (1971) and later essays Lonergan begins to set out the fruit of the appropriation of his own affective life. However, he made only a beginning. Lonergan left many unanswered questions at his death. It is the incomplete nature of his investigation of the role of feelings in ethical intentionality which prompts this work. This book offers an attempt to complement Lonergan's work by wondering about the meaning behind his brief words about feelings. This explanatory account will reveal the pivotal importance of feelings in the realization of the good.