The Three Dynamisms of Faith: Searching for Meaning, Fulfillment and Truth by Louis Roy

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Three Dynamisms of Faith: Searching for Meaning, Fulfillment and Truth by Louis Roy Richard Liddy The Three Dynamisms of Faith: Searching for Meaning, Fulfillment and Truth BY LOUIS ROY, O.P. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2017. 256 pages. Paper: $34.95. ISBN: 9780813229799. This book is a treasure trove of riches. The opening chapter, which is about searching for God and the question of God in a world tending to be without hope, is my favorite. Louis Roy quotes John Henry Newman: "I am concerned . . . not with reason considered in itself, in the abstract, but with the concrete question of how faith comes to be in particular minds, and of the kind of reasoning that leads to faith, which certainly is not the same in everyone" (12). Roy's delineation of how the quest for meaning today differs from the medieval "ascent" through the hierarchy of being is excellent. Today we tend to encounter the infinite in our finitude and in our experience of loss. Similarly, in today's world, "the theological mystical adventure is no longer regarded as an ascent, but as a descent, 'to the bottom of the fertile valley,' as Thérèse of Lisieux puts it . . . The harrowing test of hope lies there, at the foot of the Cross" (22). Roy then has four chapters delving into the riches found in the historical sources: 1) the Word of God in the Bible, 2) in Thomas Aquinas, 3) in John Henry Newman, and 4) in Bernard Lonergan. It is obvious that Lonergan's work on conversion is his basic inspiration. Roy's sixth chapter spells out the three structuring dynamisms of faith as involving feelings, reflection, and obedience. The author traces these three dynamisms to Newman's Christological [End Page 130] triad in the Preface to the Third Edition of the Via Media: 1) the sacerdotal, 2) the prophetical, and 3) the regal. As Christ is priest, prophet, and king, so the church is endowed with three functions: sacerdotal, theological, and regal. In 1909 with the publication of his The Mystical Element of Religion: As Studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and Her Friends, Friedrich von Hügel transformed these into an anthropological triad: the historical-institutional, the critical-speculative, and the mystical. Ideally these three work together harmoniously; however, this is not always the case. Authority, for example, can seek hegemony and result in authoritarianism on the one hand, and over-dependence on the other. Or the intellectual-reflective can predominate, which often leads to rationalism and/ or skepticism. Finally, the feeling/emotional/religious experience level can predominate, giving inadequate deference to the intellectual and the institutional. In this light Roy adds a further section on the danger of self-deception, which he abundantly illustrates by drawing on Robert Doran's important work on psychic conversion in addition to Lonergan's work on intellectual, moral, and religious conversion. Roy's last chapter spells out the pastoral and pedagogical implications of what he has explained throughout the book. My one query is methodological: would it not have been simpler to begin with Lonergan's methodological notions flowing from intellectual conversion? Would that not have given a greater unity to the disparate historical sources and the various identifications of the three dynamisms identified differently throughout the book? Overall, a very valuable book for those looking for an account of the various dimensions of faith as it is wrestled with in the lives of people today. [End Page 131] Richard Liddy Seton Hall University Copyright © 2019 National Institute for Newman Studies