Welcome to the Lonergan Australasia website.
Bernard Lonergan was a philosopher, theologian, economist and methodologist in the 20th Century.
He asked fundamental questions about human living, about how we make progress in our own human development, about how we progress in our living together.
For philosophers he posed three basic questions:
- What am I doing when I am knowing?
- Why is doing that knowing?
- What do I know when I do it?
We hope you find the resources on this website valuable.
Quote of the day
The difficulty emerges in…the basic expansion. In equity it should be directed to raising the standard of living of the whole society. It does not. And the reason why it does not is not the reason on which simple-minded moralists insist. They blame greed. But the prime cause is ignorance. The dynamics of surplus and basic production, surplus and basic expansions, surplus and basic incomes are not understood, not formulated, not taught. When people do not understand what is happening and why, they cannot be expected to act intelligently. When intelligence is a blank, the first law of nature takes over: self-preservation. It is not primarily greed but frantic efforts at self-preservation that turn the recession into a depression, and the depression into a crash. (Bernard Lonergan, Macroeconomic Dynamics)
29 September 2026
Three seminars on two-circuit economics discovered by Bernard Lonergan – online free
In its Spring 2026 and Autumn 2027 seminars, Lonergan Australasia is presenting three seminars on two-circuit economics discovered by Bernard Lonergan in the 1940s. For more information and to register click here.
The video and audio of the first of these seminars, Two-circuit economics: the future of economics, is now available here.
16 September 2026
Melbourne Lonergan Group
The next meeting of the Melbourne Lonergan Group will be held on Tuesday 13 October, 5.00-8.00pm (Melbourne time). At this meeting we will discuss:
♦ Bernard Lonergan’s “A Post-Hegelian Philosophy of Religion” from A Third Collection: Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, Volume 16, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, (2017) pp.194-213, and
♦ “Method, Meaning, and the Theologies of Religions”, by Christiaan Jacobs-Vandegeer, Irish Theological Quarterly, 2015, 80(1), p.30–55
If you would like to join us in person or online via zoom, please contact us.
10 June 2026
2026 Autumn Seminars – Video and audio of presentations
♦ Geoff Brodie, Assistant Principal (Faith & Identity) at St Patrick’s College, Ballarat – “Thoughts on the emergence of a final relevant question to guide educating in friendship” Click here for video and audio
♦ Father Robin Koning SJ, Director, Australian Lonergan Centre – “‘The culture has become a slum’: The need for a primary dialectic of culture” Click here for video and audio
26 November 2025
2025 Spring Seminars – Video and audio of presentations
♦ September – Dr Chris Cotter, Director of Mission and Pastoral Life, Catholic Diocese of Sandurst, Bendigo – “Reflections on the Synodal Journey in a Regional Diocese” Click here
♦ November – Professor Matthew Ogilvie, University of Notre Dame Australia – “Lonergan, Finality, Love and Politics” Click here
30 May 2025
2025 Australian Lonergan Workshop – Presentations
The 2025 Australian Lonergan Workshop was held in May 2025.
The two keynote presentations are now available for viewing or listening.
Archbishop Clement Papa, Archbishop of Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea presented the 2025 Tom Daly Oration:
The PNG Experiment, and the Contribution of Bernard Lonergan and Tom Daly.
It can be viewed here.
Dr Jennifer Sanders, Mooney Professor in Catholic Studies, St.Louis University, Missouri presented the keynote address:
Meeting Historical Decline with Christian Hope: Ignatius, Lonergan, and Spiritual Conversations.
It can be viewed here.
«« For further information on these speakers and their presentations, click here »»
9 September 2023
2023 Australian Lonergan Workshop – Presentations
An Organon for Our Time: connecting theory and practice
The inspiration for the theme of the workshop is Fred Crowe’s Method in Theology: An Organon for Our Time
The Tom Daly Oration was presented by John Boyd Turner.
The keynote speaker was Dr Jonathan Heaps, Lonergan Fellow, The Lonergan Institute at Boston College.
Click here for the video and audio of presentations.
Commemorating 50 Years of Method in Theology