Neil Omerod

Focus/interest: Trinity; Christology; Foundational theology; Christian anthropology; Natural theology; Ecclesiology
Academic qualifications: DTheol. (Melbourne College of Divinity 1997); TheolM. (MCD 1989); BD (MCD 1986); PhD (University of NSW 1979); BA (Hons) (UNSW 1976)
Current position: Executive Officer (Research Analytics), Sydney College of Divinity
Contact: Click here to email Neil
Lonergan-related publications
Books:
2017 Faith and Reason: The Possibility of a Christian Philosophy, Fortress Press, Minneapolis
2015 (with Christiaan Jacobs-Vandegeer) Foundational Theology: A New Approach to Catholic Fundamental Theology, Fortress Press, Minneapolis
2015 A Public God: Natural Theology Reconsidered. Fortress Press, Minneapolis (reviewed in Heythrop Journal 2016 57/3:612-13; Theological Studies 2016 77:527-529)
2014 Re-Visioning the Church: An Experiment in Systematic-Historical Ecclesiology, Fortress Press, Minneapolis (reviewed in Theological Studies 2014, 75/4: 927-28; Journal of Religious History 2017, 41/4:554-56; Ecclesiology 2018 14/1:107-09)
2013 (with Cynthia Crysdale) Creator God, Evolving World, Fortress Press, Minneapolis (reviewed in Theological Studies 2013, 74/2: 490-92)
2009 (with Shane Clifton) Globalization and the Mission of the Church, T & T Clark, London
2007 Creation, Grace and Redemption, Orbis Books, Maryknoll
2005 Trinity, Retrieving the Western Tradition, Marquette University Press, Milwaukee (reviewed in Theological Studies, Irish Theological Quarterly and Toronto Journal of Theology)
2000 Method, Meaning and Revelation, UPA, Lanham
1997 Introducing Contemporary Theologies: The What and the Who of Theology Today, E.J. Dwyer/Orbis, Sydney/Maryknoll
1992 Grace and Disgrace: A Theology of Self-Esteem, Society and History, E.J. Dwyer, Sydney
Journal articles
2020 “The curious case of a priest who lost his faculties” Australasian Catholic Record, 97:206-15
2019 “Grace, Nature and the theorem of the supernatural – a Trinitarian perspective”, Louvain Studies,42:26-42
2019 (with Jonathan Heaps) “Statistically Ordered: Gender, Sexual Identity, and the Metaphysics of ‘Normal’”, Theological Studies. 80:346–369
2018 (with Christiaan Jacobs-Vandegeer) “Sacred heart, beatific mind: exploring the consciousness of Jesus”, Theological Studies 79: 29–744
2018 “Doing the will of the Father: Jesus’s Freedom and the Beatific Vision”, Irish Theological Quarterly,83/3:203–216
2017 “A trajectory from Augustine to Aquinas and Lonergan: Contingent predication and the Trinity,” Irish Theological Quarterly 82/3:208-21
2016 “‘For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily’– the Trinitarian depths of the Incarnation” Theological Studies 77:803–22
2016 “Ecological conversion: what does it mean?” with Cristina Vanin, Theological Studies, 77:328-352
2016 “Gilson and Lonergan and the Possibility of a Christian Philosophy,” Heythrop Journal 57/3:532-41
2015 “A (Non-Communio) Trinitarian Ecclesiology: Grounded in Grace, Lived in Faith, Hope, and Charity.” Theological Studies 76/3:448-67
2015 “Operative and Cooperative Grace and the Question of Justification by Faith: A Contemporary Transposition.” Irish Theological Quarterly 80/3:248-58
2013 “Doran’s The Trinity in History: The Girardian connection”, Method: Journal of Lonergan Studies 4/1:47-59
2014 “An addendum to the grace-nature distinction” Theological Studies 75: 890–898
2014 “The Grace-Nature Distinction and the Construction of a Systematic Theology,” Theological Studies 75:515–536
2014 “The metaphysics of holiness: created participation in the divine nature” Irish Theological Quarterly 79/1:68–82
2013 “Bernard Lonergan and the recovery of a metaphysical frame”, Theological Studies 74:960-82
2013 “Desire and cultural origins: Lonergan and Girard in conversation”, Heythrop Journal 54:784–795
2013 “Theology and the New Atheism: Science, religion and metaphysics”, Theology 116/3:177-86
2013 “Christ, globalization and the Church”, Journal of Moral Theology 2:98-112
2012 “Questioning desire – Lonergan, Girard and Buddhism”, Louvain Studies 36:356-371
2012 “The Development of Catholic Social Teaching on Economics: Bernard Lonergan and Benedict XVI” with Paul Oslington and Robin Koning, Theological Studies 73:391-421
2012 “The four point hypothesis: transpositions and complications”, Irish Theological Quarterly 77:127-140
2012 “Intellectual conversion in Book 7 of Augustine’s Confessions”, Pacifica, 25:12-22
2011 “Transposing theology into the categories of meaning”, Gregorianum, 92:517-532
2011 “Preliminary steps towards a natural theology”, Irish Theological Quarterly, 76:115-27
2010 “Vatican II—Continuity or Discontinuity? Toward an Ontology of Meaning” Theological Studies 71:609-36 (translated into Chinese in Journal of Catholic Studies (Beijing Diocese), 9 (2012):127-61)
2010 “Creator God, evolving world”, St Mark’s Review, 211:75-82
2009 “Charles Taylor and Bernard Lonergan on Natural Theology”, Irish Theological Quarterly p.419-33
2009 “What is the goal of systematic theology?”, Irish Theological Quarterly 74:38–52
2007 “In defence of natural theology: Bringing God into the Public Realm”, Irish Theological Quarterly 71:227-41
2007 “Two points or four – Rahner and Lonergan on Trinity, incarnation, grace and beatific vision”, Theological Studies 68:661-673
2007 “Theology, history and globalization”, Gregorianum 88:23-48
2006 “The times they are a’changing – a response to O’Malley and Schloesser”, Theological Studies, 67:834-855
2005 “Chance and Necessity, Providence and God”, Irish Theological Quarterly 70:263-278
2005 “A dialectic engagement with the social sciences in an ecclesiological context”, Theological Studies 66:815-840
2005 “Power and authority – a response to Bishop Cullinane”, Australasian Catholic Record, 82:154-62
2005 “Faith and reason: perspectives from MacIntyre and Lonergan”, Heythrop Journal, 46:11-22
2003 “Augustine’s De Trinitate and Lonergan’s realms of meaning”, Theological Studies, 64:773-794
2002 “The structure of a systematic ecclesiology”, Theological Studies, 63:3-30
2001 “The Psychological Analogy for the Trinity – At Odds with Modernity”, Pacifica, 14:281-294
2000 “System, History and the Theology of Ministry”, Theological Studies, 61:432-446
1999 “It is easy to see – the footnotes of John Milbank”, Philosophy and Theology, 11/2:257-264
1997 “Faith Development: Lonergan and Fowler Revisited”, Method: Journal of Lonergan Studies, 15/2:191-208
1996 “Quarrels with the Method of Correlation”, Theological Studies, 57:707-719
Book Chapters and conference proceedings:
2020 “The technocratic paradigm: diagnosis and therapy”, in Dennis O’Hara et al. (eds.) Integral Ecology for a more Sustainable Worlds: Dialogues with Laudato Si”, Lexington, Lanham pp.209–220
2018 “Social science and ideological critiques of ecclesiology” in Paul Avis (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Ecclesiology, OUP, Oxford pp.553–72
2018 “Cultural Considerations in the Decline of Christianity” in Paul Silas Peterson ed. The Decline of Established Christianity in the Western World: Interpretations and Responses, Routledge, New York pp.87–98
2016 “Sensus fidei and Sociology: How Do We Find the Normative in the Empirical?” in Bradford E. Hinze and Peter C. Phan (eds.) Learning from All the Faithful: A Contemporary Theology of the Sensus Fidei, Wipf & Stock, Eugene pp.89–102
2015 “Bernard Lonergan’s contribution to inter-religious dialogue” in Gerald Whelan (ed.) Lonergan’s Anthropology Revisited: The next fifty years of Vatican II, Gregorian and Biblical Press, Rome pp.205-20
2015 “A voice cries in the wilderness: the place of the social sciences in ecclesiology,” in Christopher Denny, Patrick Hayes & Nicholas Rademacher (eds.) A Realist Church: Essays in Honor of Joseph A. Komonchak, Orbis, Maryknoll pp.203-220
2012 “Is all Desire Mimetic? Lonergan and Girard on the Nature of Desire and Authenticity”, in Scott Cowdell, Chris Fleming & Joel Hodge (eds.) Violence, Desire, and the Sacred: Girard’s Mimetic Theory Across the Disciplines, Continuum, London & New York pp.251-62
2011 “Contingent Predication and the Four-Point Hypothesis”, in N.Ormerod, R Koning and D. Braithwaite (eds), Fifty Years of Insight: Bernard Lonergan’s Contribution to Theology and Philosophy, Australian Theological Forum, Adelaide pp.109-118
2011 “Virtues in a globalized context” in Luca Anceschi et al. (eds.) Religion and Ethics in a Globalizing World, Palgrave and MacMillan, New York pp.67-84
2009 “Charles Taylor in conversation with Lonergan and Doran: On upper and lower blades”, in John Dadosky (ed.), Meaning and History in Systematic Theology: Essays in Honor of Robert M. Doran, S. J. Marquette University Press, Milwaukee pp.449-463
2008 “Ecclesiology and the social sciences” in G. Mannion et al (eds.), Routledge Companion to the Christian Church, Routledge, London/New York pp.639-654
2007 “The times they are a’changing – a response to O’Malley and Schloesser” in David Schultenover (ed.) Vatican II: Did anything happen?, Continuum Press, New York pp.153-84
2006 “What Really Happened at Vatican II – A Response to O’Malley and Schloesser”, in Fred Lawrence (ed.), Lonergan Workshop Vol.19, pp.235-250
2004 (with Thea Ormerod) “Can Christian Marriage Survive?” in R. Lennan (ed.) The Possibility of Belief: The Challenges and Prospects of Catholic Faith, St Pauls, Strathfield pp.207-220
1993 “Schillebeeckx’s Philosophical Prolegomenon: A Dialectic Analysis”, in W. Danaher (ed.) Lonergan and You, (Australian Lonergan Workshop) University Press of America pp.69-78
Edited collections and Conference Proceedings
2011 (eds. Neil Ormerod, Robin Koning, and David Braithwaite) Fifty Years of Insight: Bernard Lonergan’s Contribution to Theology and Philosophy, Australian Theological Forum, Adelaide
1987 (eds. J. Heesh & N. Ormerod) Lonergan and You, Proceedings of the 1985 Australian Lonergan Workshop, Australian Lonergan Workshop Committee, Sydney