Diss. phil.-hist. Bern (kein Austausch). / Literaturverz. S. 174-181.

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Religious diversity has become a central topic in the philosophy of religion. This study proposes a methodological approach to the topic by exploring the division of tasks set out by Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984). Lonergan's methodological framework, which he called functional specialization, provides a generic differentiation of tasks, each of which is central to the overall project of understanding religious diversity. This thesis explores the relevance and utility of functional specialization as a methodological approach to religious diversity in the philosophy of religion. / The first chapter is an analysis of the literature on religious diversity as a topic in the philosophy of religion. It unearths the dominant concerns in the field and some of the obstacles which continue to hinder the development of this enquiry. The second chapter provides the epistemological grounds of functional specialization. While the division of tasks outlined by Lonergan's methodology is useful simply insofar as it differentiates the tasks of academic enquiry, there are more theoretical grounds by which this division is justified. / The third chapter provides an explanatory account of the operations and tasks involved in each of the eight functional specialties. It elucidates these specialties by drawing upon relevant analogies from outside the field of religious studies. The fourth chapter brings together the two main concerns of the study by suggesting ways in which functional specialization can make a methodological contribution to the enquiry into religious diversity. It organizes the distinct but related tasks which constitute the philosophical study of religious diversity, demonstrates the current trends regarding each of these tasks, and suggests ways in which they can be made more effective. / Lonergan's notion of functional specialization makes an important contribution to the philosophical debate over religious diversity in significant ways. It provides an effective methodology which delineates both the fundamental tasks of scholarly enquiry and the operations involved in these tasks. It explains how current work in the philosophy of religious diversity could benefit from a clear delineation of the relevant tasks. It provides a framework which is open to collaboration among scholars of diverse philosophical and theological viewpoints.

Bernard Lonergan's economic writings have not been fully evaluated by economists although two recent papers by Burley (1989a, 1989b) show that work has begun. The purpose of this dissertation, therefore, is to situate Lonergan's (1944) economics essay, Circulation Analysis, in the history of economic thought of the period as well as to present a Lonerganian cycle model. / Circulation Analysis examines fundamental macrodynamic processes to explain fluctuations. It was written in the early 1940s following a period of controversy and debate that led to the current paradigms of economic dynamics. The two sides of the debate are exemplified by Harrod (1936) and Hayek (1933 (1928), 1939), in particular. The controversy ended with World War II and the emerging hegemony of the Anglo-American approach, which separated macrodynamics into growth theory (long-run supply problems), and stabilization theory (short-run demand problems). / This dissertation argues that this dichotomy is unsatisfactory and proposes Lonergan's pure cycle as an alternative paradigm. Lonergan's pure cycle restores the importance of supply-side dynamics in the short-run, without denying the primacy of demand issues in the analysis of deviations. A Lonerganian approach views demand shocks as essentially monetary, but also contends that the distribution of nominal income can cause shocks, if it is not synchronized with changes in real variables. / In this thesis a Lonerganian model is presented that uses a Kydland-Prescott (1982) type of "time-to-build" technology. The model is subjected to permanent productivity shocks to investment, which explain, with a lag, equilibrium output. The monetary and distributional shocks to demand, which are temporary, can then explain the deviation of actual output from its equilibrium value. The model uses a Beveridge and Nelson (1981) approach, which specifies changes in growth rates of variables as a function of permanent and temporary shocks. The shocks are identified because the model is recursive: first, the productivity shock determines investment and equilibrium output; then, the monetary shock determines prices and sales of consumer goods. Simulation results are presented.

Within the thought of Bernard Lonergan, is described a universal dynamic structure immanent within intellectual, moral, and religious consciousness. In Insight: A Study of Human Understanding, his analysis of the invariant pattern of that structure grounds a cognitional theory, an epistemology, and a metaphysics which then enables him to propose an ethic based on the structure of the good as immanent within every act of rational self-consciousness. In later works, principally Method in Theology, his orientation shifts to incorporate a new notion of value, which is distinct in that it is apprehended through feeling. The result is an ethic oriented to the transcendental objective of value and developed from the patterns of cognition which apprehend that value. This thesis studies that shift, and focuses on Lonergan's admitted sources to it: Max Scheler, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Jean Piaget, Susanne Langer, Abraham Maslow, and existential thought generally. In reconstructing it, the thesis finds grounds to differentiate the cognitional theory based upon analysis of intellectual as opposed to affective operations, their invariant norms for authentic operation, and their contents in facts and values respectively.

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Thesis (M. Div.)--Regent College, 1996. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-161).

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2003. / Bibliography: leaves 109-113.

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Bibliography: leaves [170]-182.