“Liturgy as a Practical Cosmology

Jenkins and Lonergan in Conversation”

Bibliographic Data

ID21363358
AuthorsLucas Briola (0000-0003-0442-791X, Saint Vincent College, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume102
Issue1100
Pages534-549
Publication date2021-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Blackfriars (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0028-4289 • E-ISSN: 1741-2005
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/nbfr.12561
OpenAlexW3025834106
LanguageEN
References cited16

This article introduces Bernard Lonergan to environmental ethics through a conversation with Willis Jenkins. Jenkins represents a ripe dialogue partner for Lonergan because of his attentiveness to methodological questions within environmental ethics, as in his incisive critique of Lynn White's influence. To pursue this conversation, this article examines Jenkins's critique of White and then turns to Lonergan's thought to supplement and refine this critique. From this engagement, the article identifies the need for a “practical cosmology”: an ongoing Christian practice that can affectively motivate care for creation. It proposes that the Christian liturgy, through its rich symbolism and distinct cosmology, offers one such practice and thus can weave that care seamlessly within Christian identity. To test this conclusion, the article briefly considers the import of this conversation for contemporary ecclesial responses to the ecological crisis, such as in Laudato si’

Aesthetics · Conversation · Epistemology · Identity (music) · Liturgy · Sociology · Theology · White (mutation) · Christian Theology and Mission · Communication · Philosophy · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics · Theology and Philosophy of Evil

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