Introductory notes for readers of this thesis - Theses - Flinders ...

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existential’. This directs the natural longing for the infinite to the possibility ofparticipation in the mystery of divine love. Because this supernatural existential is at thecentre of every human life, then the whole of human existence and history may beunderstood as being conditioned by grace. Rahner’s idea of the supernatural existential isan expression of the Pauline concept ‘where sin increased, grace abounded even more’(Romans 5:20), and of the Catholic idea expressed in the Vatican II Pastoral Constitutionon the Church in the Modern World: ‘everything genuinely human can be an echo of Godand the occasion for encountering God’s gracious presence’ 73 .The supernatural existential also enables Rahner’s idea of ‘the anonymous Christian’. Ananonymous Christian participates in the life of the mystery without consciouslyattributing this life to the historical Jesus or the visible church. This participation ispossible because the Holy Spirit, through the Christ-event, makes the mystery present inproximity to the world, and because every human being is graced with the capacity torespond to the proximity of God. A person may actually begin to enter into the depths ofGod without explicitly connecting this experience with Christian doctrine. The life of ananonymous Christian becomes recognisable and familiar as divinised life because itdisplays the attributes of that which is not strictly definable and must therefore representtranscendence above the definable data of everyday life: mystery.The practised Christian will recognise the Christ-like rhythms of the Holy Spirit in thelifestyle and practice of people who do not hold to the cognitive definitions of Christ andfaith 74 . Examples of unconscious participation in the life of the mystery include acceptingthe inescapable situation of self-responsibility (facing rather than avoiding or denyingtranscendence); faithfully fulfilling loving duty and obligation towards others withoutreward; realising the blissful meaning of love; accepting death without despair in themidst of life; experiencing a joy that cannot be named 75 . These and similar human actions73 Dych, Karl Rahner, 38.74 L.J. O’Donovan , ‘Losing oneself and finding God’, America 191 (14) (2004): 15; E.F. Rogers, ‘Themystery of the Spirit in three traditions: Calvin, Rahner, Florensky or, you keep wondering where the Spiritwent’, Modern Theology 19 (2) (2003): 249.75 Rahner , Content of the faith, 228.; K Rahner, 1974, ‘Unity of the love of neighbour and love of God(from T.I. Vol. VI, 236-8, 245-47) in A Rahner reader, 239-244.99
may be described as a ‘mysticism of everyday life’ as they are grounded in ‘genuinefaith, hope and love and contain a primordial experience of God’ 76 .One of Rahner’s most eloquent expositions of the proximity of God as the true centre ofhuman existence is contained in his devotional classic, Happiness through prayer. Rahnerbegins the text with a lament over the human condition in the context of modern life.[Human life]…is made up of many and varied activities. Deep in the heartof…[every human] is the longing, fitfully glimpsed and but half realised, to gatherup all these strivings into an intense pursuit of one all-embracing objective worthyof the toil and tears and devotion of the human heart. Such is the half-shapeddream; but the reality is a picture of heaped up activities, where the trivial jostleswith the less trivial, and the less trivial elbows the important things, and there isno unity of design, nor any intensity of single, concentrated purpose. There is noreal perspective of values: what is essentially trivial but immediately urgent,looms large and commands attention; while what is essentially important, but notimmediately urgent or insistent, is relegated to the hazy recesses of thebackground 77 .The joyful news against this dreary and all-too-familiar background is very simply that aperson ‘may turn from it all; and immediately the noise of one’s activities sinks to silenceas, in a spirit of reverence and love, [one] speaks to God in prayer’78 . Prayer is not ‘thespeaking of many words…but the raising of the heart and mind to God in constantlyrenewed acts of love’, and is essential to human existence: it nurtures our longing for theunity of our action and our intention that this longing may live into eternal life. ‘With oneswift upward glance of…[the] soul’, individuals get as near as their finite nature willallow them to ‘that sublime fusion of all…activities into one glowing point of heat andlight’. Only in heaven can a person achieve the full synthesis of all faculties and energiesin the contemplation of the beatific vision; here on earth, through prayer, a person isenabled to look upon God as ‘through a glass darkly’ and in this process comes as near aspossible to ‘that unity of action and purpose for which…[the] heart has a deep and secretlonging 79 .76 H. Egan, Karl Rahner – mystic of everyday life (New York: Crossroad,1998), 57.77 K. Rahner, (Dublin: Clonmore & Reynolds, 1958), 7.78 Ibid.79 Ibid.100
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‘A Spirituality of silence’An i
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Chapter 4: The human experience of
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Summary of thesis:This thesis offer
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The particular angle from which thi
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somewhat superseded by more recent
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Rahner: I have nothing against that
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One brief but notable spiritual inf
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dialectic between these two, has le
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odies of knowledge, history and alt
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superiors, having decided that he w
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High School Week, Rahner began his
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Earlier in this chapter, Rahner’s
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These anecdotes testify that Rahner
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As you see, at the top of the carto
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Central to Rahner’s thinking is t
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Kilby notes that in regard to this
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Introduced by Cardinal König to a
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influence will continue to spread a
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We see from Rahner’s pastoral con
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European power 4 , and that he was
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Over a period of days and weeks, th
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The outcome of this encounter: the
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Modras has pointed out that Ignatiu
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Rahner the Ignatian spiritual direc
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facilitate this joyful and liberati
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Rahner’s often-quoted comment tha
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The master of the Exercises in no w
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Endean argues that Rahner is interp
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These two interpretations of Rahner
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Rahner advocates that all believers
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The sacrament of the wordIn reflect
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‘theological aesthetics’. With
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Many things in life act as signs th
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Rahner’s dual commitment to recei
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living human being, and each indivi
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The church is sacramental in the se
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spiritual rhythms that trace direct
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the missionary tasks of the Church;
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unhelpful assumptions that diminish
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expressions of mystagogical 142 ini
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Does this lead Rahner into compromi
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) ) an ongoing contemporary influen
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Hosek shifts the soteriological foc
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Is this vision of silent spirituali
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Being in silence as a way of creati
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word of life and hope within them.
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Level 1:PremoralStage 2:Instrumenta
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These new monastics see the local c
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eliefs that have been tried and tes
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of mature theological reflection co
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ecognised in his Christological ass
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inability or unwillingness of the e
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Kanyini—an Australian Aboriginal
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The film Kanyini demonstrates the c
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estless and always in a hurry to ge
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considered the sole and ultimate au
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We define spirituality as a conscio
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supportive conversation with expres
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A glance at table 4 75 (above), Hug
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In the worldview of contemporary Au
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It certainly seems somewhat disinge
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A good starting point for examining
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Christian contemplative-prayer trad
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Of course, a small number of the vi
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For better or for worse, and despit
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energy, intellect, prayer, love and
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Rahner, K. Karl Rahner - Prayers an
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Kelly, G.B. (ed.). Karl Rahner - th
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Van Vorst, B. ‘Kung and Rahner: d
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Harden, J.A. ‘Ignatian Spirituali
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Tyson, P. ‘Contemporary Australia
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