Finding Salvation in Christ: Essays on Christology and Soteriology in Honor of William P. Loewe

Finding Salvation in Christ brings together some of the most important figures in contemporary theology to honor the work of William Loewe systematic theologian and specialist in the theology of Bernard Lonergan SJ. For over three decades Loewes writings have sought to make classic christological and soteriological doctrines comprehensible to a Catholic Church that is working to integrate individual subjectivity communal living and historical consciousness in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Essays included in this volume assess Loewes reinterpretation of patristic and medieval Christology from Irenaeus to Anselm of Canterbury and explain the significance of the theology of Lonergan and Loewe for the fields of soteriology economics family life and interreligious theology. While some recent postliberal theologies have polarized the churchs relationship with contemporary culture by minimizing similarities between Christianity and other worldviews the contributors in this volume continue Lonergans project of integrating the findings of various intellectual disciplines with Christian theology and use Loewes historical and systematic work as a guide in that endeavor. While Lonergans transcendental Thomism has been criticized by both traditionalists and revisionists essays in this collection apply Loewes theological methodology in a variety of ways to demonstrate that time-honored doctrines about Christ can be transplanted into new cultural contexts and gain intelligibility and credibility in this process. Having lived and labored through the far-reaching changes in Catholic thought introduced in recent decades Loewes career provides a model for theologians attempting to build bridges between the past and the present and between the church and the world. This collection serves as a bracing introduction to many of the most important issues facing Christology today and in so doing rightly celebrates William Loewes contribution to Catholic theology. Even indeed precisely when they push back against his positions (and Loewes own perceptive questions in response are worth the price of admission) his students and colleagues demonstrate the continuing fertility of the questions Loewe has asked and the theological pathos out of which he asks them. --J. Matthew Ashley University of Notre Dame Christopher D. Denny is Associate Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Johns University in New York City. Christopher McMahon teaches in the Department of Theology at St. Vincent College Latrobe Pennsylvania. He is the author of Jesus Our Salvation (2007) and Called Together: An Introduction to Ecclesiology (2010).