Gilson and Lonergan : A test case on science and metaphysics

[Extract] The revival of Thomism occasioned by Leo XIII's publication of Aeterni Patris gave rise to divergent streams within this major intellectual tradition. In this paper I shall consider two of these streams, the first which sought to bring Thomism into dialogue with the turn to the subject with a subsequent focus on epistemological concerns, and the second which steadfastly resisted such a turn as a betrayal of the legacy of St Thomas, leading to an inevitable philosophical dead-end. As exemplifying these two streams I shall focus on the positions of Etienne Gilson, the French medievalist and proponent of Thomistic realism in the face of the incursions of Cartesian and Kantian ‘idealism’, and Bernard Lonergan, the Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian whose work exemplifies a turn to the subject that Gilson rejected.