‘Materializing’ Self-Transcendence
Religious Studies and Theology March 19, 2026 Reid B. Locklin
Religious experience and religious self-transcendence are central to Bernard Lonergan's philosophical theology, but recent postcolonial critiques have challenged both the empirical sources of his universalist view and the category of religion itself. This essay responds by creatively reinterpreting Lonergan's heuristic of religious experience through Judith Butler's critical theory. The resulting account frames religious experience as a form of embodied performance, highlights the paradoxical, elusive, and relational nature of religious subjectivity, and recognizes the limits imposed by relational bonds as necessary for self-transcendence. The thought experiment both troubles Lonergan's account and offers an alternative interpretation that reaffirms it on a revised basis.