Bernard Lonergan’s Third Way of the Heart and Mind: Bridging Some Buddhist-Christian-Muslim-Secularist Misunderstandings with a Global Secularity Ethics

Today the world is confronted with many religious wars and the migrations of millions of persons due to these conflicts. There is a need for informed dialog as to the roots of the conflicts and ways of addressing these in ways that speak to peoples’ minds and hearts. This is what this book attempts to do from the viewpoint of major religious and ethical thinkers. The book relies on Bernard Lonergan’s foundational method to address problems systematically with a view to achieve breakthroughs in our openness to one another. The book appeals to the teachings of the Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammad, relying on the mystical and insights of these religious founders as well as those of dozens of their followers so as to find commonalities that can build bridges of mercy. A global secularity ethics plays a leading role in this book’s bridging efforts.

Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION—In which we lay out this Book’s Principles and Mode of Procedure PART ONE Introducing the Heart-Mind Interdisciplinary Issues Explored in this Book 1. Preliminary Issues in Fostering Buddhist-Christian-Muslim-Secularist Cooperation: Humanity’s Religious-Secular Divides and the Pivotal Roles that an Ethical Secularity can play 2. An all too Brief a Summary of Lonergan’s Generalized Empirical Method (GEM): An Overview of the Problem of “Knowing”: From Plato and Aristotle to Husserl and Lonergan 3. How GEM-FS Conversions May Help People of Good Will Foster a Global Secularity Ethics PART TWO Sketching a GEM-FS Bridge’s Mediating Phase as Outlined in MiT’s First Four Specialties: Probing into Buddhist-Christian-Muslim Teachings so as to Best Broach a Global Secularity Ethics Chapter 1 First Functional Specialty: Researching Data on Christianity, Islam and an Ethical Secularity Chapter 2 Second Functional Specialty: Interpreting Religious Scriptures, Democracy, and Secularism so as to Avoid Misunderstandings or Resentment Chapter 3 Third Functional Specialty: GEM-FS Judgments of Value and Historical Perspectives Chapter 4 Fourth Functional Specialty: Dialectics Pointing to Where We Need to Go: GEM-FS’ Apophatic-Kataphatic Ability Can Help Integrate Secularity with the World’s Religions PART THREE Sketching a GEM-FS Bridge’s Mediated Phase as Outlined in MiT’s Last Four Specialties: Toward Enabling Needed Transformative Changes among the Religions and Secularity Chapter 5 Fifth Functional Specialty: Foundations and its Underlying Premises Chapter 6 Sixth Functional Specialty: Policies based on a Logic of the Heart’s Value Judgments Chapter 7 Seventh Functional Specialty: Adjusting, Transforming Systems Chapter 8 Eighth Functional Specialty: Communicating so as to Overcome Intolerance CONCLUSION A SHORT GLOSSARY of Islamic Terms in Relation to this Book’s GEM-FS Process INDEX

About the Author :
John Raymaker holds a PhD in interdisciplinary social ethics (Marquette, University). He has spent many years in Japan, working at the Oriens Institute for Religious Research and teaching at Hosei University in Tokyo. He was for many involved in interfaith dialogs in Asia.

Review :
This work studies how Lonergan's comprehensive method can help mitigate the social, economic. and particularly religious tensions caused by globalization. Lonergan studied human understanding. He also examined Catholic teaching up to and following the Vatican II Council. The Council confirmed the Church's respect for a person's conscience in the midst of modern tensions. Christians today must address the problems caused by a militant Islam as well as the arguments of secularists. The book analyzes today's many identity crises. It argues that Lonergan's method can help people build bridges between hearts and minds.