The Structure of Religious Knowing

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