History
The West Coast Methods Institute was the inspiration of Timothy P. Fallon, S.J., Professor of Philosophy at Santa Clara University until his death in 1995. Following the International Lonergan Congress held at Santa Clara University in 1984, Fr. Fallon suggested the creation of an institute devoted to collaborative inquiry into interiority and transcendence, informed and guided by Lonergan's work. Between 1984 and 1995 an annual meeting was held at Santa Clara where Fr. Fallon directed the Lonergan Center. After Fr. Fallon’s death both the Center and the Institute moved to Loyola Marymount University and continued under the leadership of Professor of Philosophy, Mark Morelli. For 34 years, Prof. Morelli and the Philosophy Department at Loyola Marymount University hosted the Annual Fallon Memorial Lonergan Symposium otherwise known as the West Coast Methods Institute. The aims of the Institute reflected Fr. Fallon's commitment to the Lonergan program of a philosophy founded in attention to the subject-as-subject and open to the religious dimension of human living.
In 1972 Bernard Lonergan delivered the inaugural St. Michael’s Lecture Series at Gonzaga University. Lonergan’s lectures were subsequently published under the title “Philosophy of God and Theology” and are now available in Volume 17 of the Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan. Hosted by the St. Michael’s Institute, the Jesuit School of Philosophy and Letters at Gonzaga University, the lecture series continued for 20 years and included E.L. Mascall, George Lindbeck, and Paul Ricoeur, among its list of twentieth century luminaries in philosophy and theology. The focus of the lecture series was the question of God in modern thought and many of the speakers had been Lonergan’s students and collaborators, including Frederick Crowe, David Tracy, Joseph Komonchak, and David Burrell. In addition to hosting Lonergan and the Saint Michael’s lectures, Lonergan’s thought found a home at Gonzaga in the courses of William Ryan, S.J. and Bernard Tyrrell, S.J. who taught in the philosophy and Religious Studies departments respectively until 2010. Fr. Ryan and Fr. Tyrrell also co-edited Second Collection.
Beginning in 2023, Gonzaga University will host the West Coast Methods Institute and continue building on these legacies. In gratitude for their inspiration the institute hosts keynote lectures in honor of Frs. Fallon, Ryan, and Tyrrell.