Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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Universal revelation and historical revelation
complement each other. The first prepares a person for
the second, while the latter fulfills the former.
'Anonymous Christians' experience true salvation,
but knowledge of Christianity and participation in the
Church greatly enrich the 'Christian's' life. The
church's task is to proclaim the ground of faith in Jesus
Christ. As the visible, historic self-communication of
God, Jesus is "what is decisively Christian in
The self-communication of the triune God
through grace is already basically given and
effective in the hearer of this word . . . so
that the hearing of the kerygma is made
possible by the same reality which is
proclaimed as present and effective. Only in
this way does the kerygma of the Church itself
become fully present and real, does it become
truly an event of salvation, by becoming, as
word filled with the proclaimed reality, the
salvation of him who hears it.2-2-
Christianity."2-
Rahner accepted traditional Christian teaching on
the two natures of Christ. -2 '. In becoming flesh, God
took finitude upon himself, revealing himself more
specifically to man, and claiming the finite human world
for himself. God, in Christ, entered human
existence, giving himself (to himself) freely in life and
death. In the Resurrection, the Father 'saved' Jesus
(himself). Man's salvation occurs because God has acted
upon himself.
This first pathmaking experience of human
'salvation' enables the salvation of all mankind, since
"God has thereby made his salvific will present in the