In Method in Theology Bernard Lonergan acknowledged the reality of intersubjectivity in human life and sought to incorporate it in various ways into his understanding of theological method. Building upon Lonergan's insights, this essay indicates how his three stages of meaning and different realms of meaning can be expanded in terms of the author's Neo-Whiteheadian metaphysics of universal intersubjectivity so as to justify a communal and processive approach to truth and objectivity in human affairs. In this way, Lonergan's transcendental method is clearly vindicated in a Neo-Whiteheadian as well as a Thomistic context and the resulting synthesis of metaphysical perspectives notably strengthens the position of those who advocate discussion and dialogue over the use of force for the resolution of persistent controversial issues.

The author considers how Christians are called to bear witness to difference specifically in a global context where boundaries are becoming increasingly ambiguous. After arguing that it is particularly important for Christians to embrace the responsibility associated with ambiguous borders and hybrid existence, the author explains how American culture works against being open to others at borders because of the emotional conflict they bring. An attitude of entitlement embedded in a narcissistic mentality prevents some from inviting otherness into their lives. By developing empathy and through mourning privilege, human beings can overcome a posture of entitlement. Christ's ministry, incarnation, and death are highlighted, finally, as resources for dealing with the loss of privilege that emerges at the borders of self and other.

This essay examines the methodological relationship of social doctrines of the Trinity and ecclesiologies of communion. The Theologies of Gisbert Greshake and Leonardo Boff represent theologians arguing that ecclesiology must be based on a doctrine of God which they present from a social (or psychological) perspective. The goal of the essay is to expose some of the methodological assumptions made by ecclesiologists and the value of social approach to the Trinity can have in an ecclesiology of communion.

“Religious experience” is an ambiguous theological term. American philosophers William James and John Dewey contribute to an understanding of religious experience as private and strictly affective, which reinforces belief in a denuminized communal sphere. Another American philosopher, Josiah Royce, accounts for religious experience in ways that resonate with Catholic experience and that counteract current American tendencies to privacy and insularity. Royce envisions an alternative to both William James' individualism and John Dewey's naturalism that illumines two typically Catholic experiences: encountering God sacramentally in the community called “church,” and discovering God's gracious power within human knowledge and freedom. His description of the sources of religious insight affirm the intellectual and actional elements of religious experience as well as its affective dimensions. His description of the act of interpretation explains how many selves can take part in a single experience, and thereby create a shared life together.

Karl Rahner's notion of primordial words and Leonard Bernstein's conception of music as intrinsically metaphorical are engaged to suggest that there is a fundamental affinity between artistic and religious imagination. The affinity is grounded, in part at least, in metaphoric process—an elemental cognitive act in which the human spirit is stretched so that its expressions can address what lies beyond them.

There was a time when theological discourse occurred generally in either of two modes, as a professor-to-students lecture/dialogue or as a theologian-to-other-theologians scholarly communication of books, journals and professional meetings. This twofold role of teacher and professional colleague defined essentially what a theologian does. Although the theologian's work is still thought of in this way by some, this is no longer an adequate model. Contemporary theologians, to be sure, still bear the responsibilities of professors and professional colleagues, but because of changes in Church and society they now have a new responsibility as well.

The most important change in the Catholic Church effected by the Second Vatican Council was arguably the emergence in recent decades of a new kind of laity, a laity empowered to exercise a more active and participatory role in the life and works of the Church. During the same period, moreover, a well-educated laity has grown up in many countries, including the United States.

These changes in the Catholic laity—the great majority of whom, of course, are lay persons in relation to the theological profession as well—have had direct repercussions on the vocation of theologians. As the catalogues and sales of religious publishing houses readily show, contemporary theological works are being read by many lay persons who are not theologians. With their more active and participatory role in the Church's life and mission, lay persons now experience a vested interest in theology and its development.