Peter Beer SJ is Director of the Lonergan Centre, Canisius College, Pymble, Sydney, New South Wales. He joined the Jesuit Order, graduated in arts at Melbourne University, was ordained to the priesthood and pursued doctoral studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, graduating in 1972.
He was awarded a travelling scholarship for postgraduate research at the Lonergan Center at Regis College, Toronto, in 1974-75 where he studied Lonergan's seminal works, Insight and Method in theology. After teaching at the diocesan seminary in Melbourne, in 1976 he was appointed to the Union Theological Institute of the Sydney College of Divinity, where he taught systematic theology and methodology until 1998. He has published a number of articles applying Lonergan's transcendental method.
In 1979, he invited Professor Frederick Crowe, of Regis College, on a lecture tour to the Australian capital cities. After this successful tour, he invited others to join with him in setting up a Lonergan workshop that meets regularly for the presentation of papers and discussion.