Inside the Core: Celebrating a Faculty Member's Article

Inside the Core celebrates the accomplishments of our faculty.  Jonathan Heaps, who has been teaching in the Core for several years, recently published an article in Commonweal, a prestigious venue in which many Catholic intellectuals, including Core authors Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton, have been published.  

In the article he links the ideas of Jesuit philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan with current political issues. One of the key concepts underlying the Core is the linking of the Catholic intellectual tradition with current events. Bernard Lonergan’s thinking developed in the complex world of the twentieth century, but his ideas are as relevant today as they were during his lifetime.  

Jonathan Heaps is the Toth-Lonergan Visiting Professor for the spring of 2026. In that capacity he recently led a discussion for Praxis, the Faculty Development initiative started by Monsignor Richard Liddy and led by Linda Garafalo, Danute Nourse and Francia Peterson, where faculty from a wide variety of disciplines study the works of Lonergan and connect his ideas with their own discipline.  This practice connects with what Jonathan Heaps is doing in his article.

Jonathan Heaps has published on Lonergan in the past, and his book The Ambiguity of Being: Bernard Lonergan and the Problems of the Supernatural (The Catholic University of America Press, 2023) was featured in our Scholars’ Forum last spring.

Jonathan Heaps is the director of the Lonergan Institute and Adjunct faculty member in the University Core. With regard to how his article connects with his teaching in the Core, he says:

The idea for this article was very much in line with my approach to teaching "Core II: Christianity and Culture in Dialogue." How can we be enriched and empowered by recovering the experiences and ideas of thinkers who came before us to think about what the Catholic Intellectual Tradition has to offer our country and our culture today? I wanted to put Father Lonergan into that dialogue for our moment.

The Core is grateful to have faculty like Jonathan Heaps bringing their scholarship to Seton Hall and to our Core students and faculty. 

Categories: Arts and Culture, Faith and Service