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Irreducible Pluralism: The Transcendental and Hermeneutical as Theological Options
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
Abstract
The transcendental and hermeneutical are two significant approaches to theology within contemporary Catholic thought. Peter Drilling suggests a complementary relationship between these theological perspectives in his proposed dialogue between Bernard Lonergan and Francis Schüssler Fiorenza. Fiorenza's reconstructive hermeneutic, with its emphasis on the outer dimensions of foundational theology, ought to be balanced with Lonergan's emphasis on the inner, the transcendental. In contrast, this essay argues that the transcendental and hermeneutical are alternative rather than complementary theological approaches. They are rooted in contradictory anthropological starting points and cannot be united in an inclusive hybrid. The essay concludes with some comments on the consequent pluralism of contemporary theology.
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- Copyright © The College Theology Society 1989
References
1 Drilling, Peter J., “The Pyramid or the Raft: Francis Schüssler Fiorenza and Bernard Lonergan in Dialogue about Foundational Theology,” Horizons 13/2 (Fall 1986), 275–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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4 Drilling, p. 275.
5 Ibid., p. 276.
6 Ibid., p. 286.
7 Ibid., pp. 287-88.
8 Ibid., p. 277.
9 Ibid., p. 288.
10 Ibid., p. 277.
11 Fiorenza, pp. 310-11.
12 Drilling, p. 290.
13 Ibid., p. 286.
14 Ibid., pp. 276-78.
15 Ibid., pp. 282-85.
16 Ibid., p. 283; Fiorenza, p. 296.
17 Drilling, pp. 283-84.
18 Ibid., p. 283.
19 Ibid., p. 287.
20 Fiorenza, pp. 310.
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32 Ibid., p. 97.
33 Ibid., p. 343; BP, p. 230.
34 Ibid., p. 217.
35 BT, pp. 195-203.
36 Ibid., p. 300; BP, p. 216.
37 BT, pp. 188-95.
38 Ibid., pp. 140-47, 248-49.
39 BP, pp. 140-41.
40 BT, p. 70.
41 Ibid., p. 67; “On the Essence of Truth,” trans. Sallis, John in Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings, ed. Krell, David (New York: Harper & Row, 1977), pp. 127–29.Google Scholar
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50 BT, p. 239.
51 Ibid., pp. 167, 344-46.
52 The relationship between the transcendental and history is dealt with frequently by Rahner. For example, see: “Reflections on Methodology in Theology,” Theological Investigations 11:109–10;Google Scholar Bonsor, pp. 175-85.
53 Dulles, Avery, “Hermeneutical Theology,” Communio 6 (1979), 34.Google Scholar
54 I suggest the possible form of a theology based on the anthropology of Heidegger and Gadamer in an essay “An Orthodox Historicism?” which will appear in the May 1990 issue of Philosophy Theology.