Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction Scope and Content Parameters of the Study 1. Significant Moments in the Historical Development of the Study of Religion and Religious Experience Introduction 1. Schleiermacher and The Feeling of Absolute Dependence 2. Rudolf Otto and The Idea of the Holy Mysterium tremendum et fascinans 3. Gerardus Van der Leeuw: Phenomenology of Religion 4. Mircea Eliade and the Study of the Sacred Conclusion 2. Lonergan on the Relationship between Theology and the History of Religions Introduction 1. Lonergan's Encounter with Eliade 2. The Turn to the Subject's Religious Horizon 3. The Relationship between Theology and the History of Religions 4. The Coming Convergence of World Religions 5. Eliade's New Humanism Conclusion 3. Lonergan's Theory of Consciousness as Hermeneutic Framework Introduction 1. Patterns of Operations 2. Patterns of Experience 3. Differentiations of Consciousness 4. Transformations of Consciousness--Conversion 5. Lonergan's Theory of Consciousness as Hermeneutic Framework The Upper Blade 4. The Experience of the Sacred Introduction 1. The Encounter with the Sacred 1.1 Coincidentia Oppositorum 1.2 Hierophany 1.3 The Paradoxical Relationship between the Sacred and the Profane 2. The Experience of the Sacred: A Lonergan Perspective 2.1 Coincidentia Oppositorum: An Analysis 2.2 The Sacred and Profane and Lonergan's Theory of Consciousness Conclusion 5. Understanding the Sacred through Religious Symbols Introduction 1. Sacred Symbols 1.1 Recovering Sacred Symbols 1.2 The Symbolism of the Center 2. Lonergan and Symbolism 2.1 Elemental Symbols in Lonergan's Theory of Consciousness 2.2 Psychic Conversion and the Recovery of Sacred Symbols Conclusion 6. The Sacred as Real: An Analysis of Eliade's Ontology of the Sacred Introduction 1. The Ontological Status of the Sacred 1.1 The Sacred as "the Real" 1.2 Sacred Myth and Reality 1.3 A Platonic Ontology? 2. Lonergan's Philosophy and the Sacred and the Profane 2.1 The Unrestricted Act of Understanding 2.2 The Subject's Full Religious Horizon Conclusion 7. Living in the Sacred Introduction 1. Eliade: Living in the Sacred 1.1 The Transformative Power of the Sacred 1.2 Homo Religiosus 1.3 The Sacred Life of the Shaman 2. Living in the Sacred and Lonergan's Notion of Self-Transcendence 2.1 Transformations of Consciousness and the Sacred 2.2 Differentiations of Consciousness Conclusion 8. Eliade and Lonergan: Mutual Enrichment Synopsis Prospects Toward a Fuller Philosophy of God Toward the Foundations for Religious Convergence A Final Note Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author

John D. Dadosky is Assistant Professor of Theology at Regis College.

Reviews

"Dadosky brings together the insights of two highly gifted thinkers and does so in a systematic way that builds their points of shared concern into a well-rounded complementarity. When brought together, these thinkers provide an eloquent address to some central questions of faith, an address that runs the gamut from archaic religion to the encounter with twentieth-century science."