Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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"If human beings in their concrete and historical essence
cannot be described unless we say that they are those to
whom God, as uncreated grace, communicates existence,
then we cannot speak of them without speaking also of
God."
But, likewise, God is unknown outside his relation
to man. "We are not able to understand what God is
except by referring to the infinite transcendentality of
human beings themselves."1°
In and of himself, God is indescribable. Man cannot
know God objectively; "God is the primordial ground and
abyss of all reality who always lies beyond everything
which can be described."" Rahner called God "holy
mystery," 12- "the inscrutable principle of being."
Again, "God is precisely that mystery of the
Incomprehensible, the inexpressible, toward which at
every moment of my life I am always tending."14
That last statement comes back to the subject of
men, who always "tend" toward God. Because of this
universal inclination toward God (possessed by all
people, whether religious or not), many people are
Christians "anonymously."
Someone who follows his own conscience, whether
he thinks he should be an atheist or not, is
accepted before God and by God, and can reach
that eternal life we confess in our Christian
faith as the goal of all. . . . And that is in
fact what the term 'anonymous Christian' tries
to say."1'5
Rahner did not specify the requirements of an
'anonymous Christian conscience' beyond the love of one's