GeorgeAllen
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Message from the Gonzaga President:
http://www.gonzaga.edu/about/Message+from+the+President/default.asp
The heart of Jesuit education, Part II
By Father Robert J. Spitzer, S.J.
Gonzaga University President
Since human beings can indefinitely prove propositions which are not provable through the axioms from which they were derived, it would seem that human intelligence is indefinitely beyond any axiomatic or program-induced intellection. This "indefinite beyondness" remarkably resembles Lonergan's "notion of being" (i.e., the notion of "perfect intelligibility").
The fact that human beings have an indefinite desire to know (which includes a desire to know the Unrestricted) points to a source of the desire which is not restricted in its intelligibility. Without this unrestricted source, the conditioned and restricted nature of knowledge would not manifest itself indefinitely until one reaches a completely intelligible answer. For this reason, Lonergan and other philosophers have associated the "notion of being" with the notional presence of complete (unrestricted) intelligibility within human consciousness. These philosophers refer to this complete, unrestricted intelligibility as "God."
Thus, contemporary philosophy and mathematics helps to verify the unconditioned and unrestricted depths of the human soul, which can only be fulfilled by unconditioned and unrestricted Truth itself (God). As Augustine noted in Book I of the Confessions: "For Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee."
If you are enticed to go further by the mystery of your own being, but were thoroughly confused by the explanation given above, you may want to pursue a course in metaphysics, epistemology, Bernard Lonergan, or Saint Thomas Aquinas at a Jesuit university near you. At least I will have made one point clearly: the pursuit of Truth itself lies at the heart and soul of Jesuit education.
http://www.gonzaga.edu/about/Message+from+the+President/default.asp
The heart of Jesuit education, Part II
By Father Robert J. Spitzer, S.J.
Gonzaga University President
Since human beings can indefinitely prove propositions which are not provable through the axioms from which they were derived, it would seem that human intelligence is indefinitely beyond any axiomatic or program-induced intellection. This "indefinite beyondness" remarkably resembles Lonergan's "notion of being" (i.e., the notion of "perfect intelligibility").
The fact that human beings have an indefinite desire to know (which includes a desire to know the Unrestricted) points to a source of the desire which is not restricted in its intelligibility. Without this unrestricted source, the conditioned and restricted nature of knowledge would not manifest itself indefinitely until one reaches a completely intelligible answer. For this reason, Lonergan and other philosophers have associated the "notion of being" with the notional presence of complete (unrestricted) intelligibility within human consciousness. These philosophers refer to this complete, unrestricted intelligibility as "God."
Thus, contemporary philosophy and mathematics helps to verify the unconditioned and unrestricted depths of the human soul, which can only be fulfilled by unconditioned and unrestricted Truth itself (God). As Augustine noted in Book I of the Confessions: "For Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee."
If you are enticed to go further by the mystery of your own being, but were thoroughly confused by the explanation given above, you may want to pursue a course in metaphysics, epistemology, Bernard Lonergan, or Saint Thomas Aquinas at a Jesuit university near you. At least I will have made one point clearly: the pursuit of Truth itself lies at the heart and soul of Jesuit education.
