Both the desire to know and the desire to love can be observed and understood, affirmed for what they really are, and then gradually appropriated, making possible a fuller human development and life more abundant in community. This discovery was made progressively by Bernard Lonergan in his life and work as a philosopher and methodological theologian. It is possible to trace this viewpoint in his writings, where he thematizes self-appropriation and presents it pedagogically in Insight: A Study of Human Understanding.

Self-appropriation is heightened to reach the existential level by Method in Theology, where Lonergan makes religious conversion-complete being-in-love with God as a gift of grace -foundational for the theological enterprise. The openness to truth and goodness which comes with this redemptive gift enlarges human horizons and heals faltering achievement so that we can more consistently live out of the desire we are.