https://doi.org/10.1177/0021140020926598 Irish Theological Quarterly 2020, Vol. 85(3) 286–306 © The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0021140020926598 journals.sagepub.com/home/itq 1 Robert M. Doran, ‘Consciousness and Grace,’ Method: Journal of Lonergan Studies 11 (1993): 51. Dialectic and Transposition: Lonergan, Scholasticism, and Grace, in Conversation with Robert Doran Jeremy D. Wilkins Theology Department, Boston College, USA Abstract Lonergan’s well-known student Robert Doran has proposed to ‘transpose’ the concepts of Scholastic theology by identifying them with putatively corresponding elements within consciousness. This article suggests that Doran’s method rests on a dubious exegesis of Lonergan, is involved in philosophic confusion, and does not seem a viable way to achieve the desired results. Lonergan himself proposed and practised a different solution: his dialectical method. Keywords Bernard Lonergan, Robert Doran, grace, method, transposition S ome 25 years have passed since Robert Doran—General Editor of Bernard Lonergan’s Collected Works and surely one of his best-known exponents—announced his inten- tion to begin a project in systematic theology by ‘transposing Lonergan’s Scholastic theol- ogy into categories derived from interiorly and religiously differentiated consciousness,’ 1 starting with grace and charity. Early in the going, Doran and his longtime associate, Daniel Monsour, caught on to the explanatory potential of Lonergan’s hypothesis correlating the Corresponding author: Jeremy D. Wilkins, Theology Department, Boston College, Stokes 310N, Chestnut Hill, Boston, MA 02467, USA. Email: jeremy.wilkins@bc.edu 926598ITQ 0 0 10.1177/0021140020926598Irish Theological QuarterlyWilkins research-article 2020 Article