The Lonergan Institute at Boston College

"To grasp the contemporary issue," Lonergan wrote, "and to meet its challenge calls for collective effort. It is not the individual but the group that transforms the culture." The Lonergan Institute at Boston College aims to promote that transformation both within and beyond the university. Faculty members associated with the Institute have been instrumental in establishing two highly successful undergraduate programs. The PERSPECTIVES program now embraces a coordinated series of four interdisciplinary courses, which explore the expressive arts in modernity, contemporary natural science, philosophy and theology, and the new social sciences of sociology, economics, and the law. The PULSE program offers a unique approach to moral and social-service education that integrates theory and praxis, field placements and academic reflection. Departmental courses and seminars are regularly offered on Lonergan, his principal writings, and subjects which those writings illuminate, such as hermeneutics, political theology, science and religion, Christology, philosophy of art, self-knowledge, economics, the Trinity, and the history and philosophy of science and mathematics.

With guidance from a national board of directors chaired by Prof. Joseph Flanagan, S.J. (pictured at left), the Lonergan Institute coordinates a range of other projects and activities. The translation of Lonergan's magisterial Insight is one example. Another is the publication of his work on the theory of macroeconomic dynamics, which he began in the 1940s and revised during his years at B.C. Candidates for the Master of Arts degree can pursue their interest in Lonergan with the support of fellowships established in Lonergan's honor. Scholars who have completed graduate studies can take advantage of the many resources available at B.C. through the Lonergan postdoctoral fellowships that the Institute offers each year. A recent and very successful addition to this roster of activities is an annual gathering of younger Lonergan scholars in late August.

In addition to the local community of Lonergan scholarship that it seeks to foster, the Institute reaches a wider audience by publishing journals and monographs. Dozens of articles and book-length studies have helped to communicate Lonergan's ideas and generate discussion, debate, and dialogue throughout the English-speaking world.

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