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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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
Page 1 and 2:
‘A Spirituality of silence’An i
Page 3 and 4:
Chapter 4: The human experience of
Page 5 and 6:
Summary of thesis:This thesis offer
Page 7 and 8:
The particular angle from which thi
Page 9 and 10:
somewhat superseded by more recent
Page 11 and 12:
Rahner: I have nothing against that
Page 13 and 14:
One brief but notable spiritual inf
Page 15 and 16:
dialectic between these two, has le
Page 17 and 18:
odies of knowledge, history and alt
Page 19 and 20:
superiors, having decided that he w
Page 21 and 22:
High School Week, Rahner began his
Page 23 and 24:
Earlier in this chapter, Rahner’s
Page 25 and 26:
These anecdotes testify that Rahner
Page 27 and 28:
As you see, at the top of the carto
Page 29 and 30:
Central to Rahner’s thinking is t
Page 31 and 32:
Kilby notes that in regard to this
Page 33 and 34:
Introduced by Cardinal König to a
Page 35 and 36:
influence will continue to spread a
Page 37 and 38:
We see from Rahner’s pastoral con
Page 39 and 40:
European power 4 , and that he was
Page 41 and 42:
Over a period of days and weeks, th
Page 43 and 44:
The outcome of this encounter: the
Page 45 and 46:
Modras has pointed out that Ignatiu
Page 47 and 48:
Rahner the Ignatian spiritual direc
Page 49 and 50:
facilitate this joyful and liberati
Page 51 and 52:
Rahner’s often-quoted comment tha
Page 53 and 54:
The master of the Exercises in no w
Page 55 and 56:
Endean argues that Rahner is interp
Page 57 and 58: The Ignatian Exercises—especially
Page 59 and 60: provision of appropriate spiritual
Page 61 and 62: their existential encounter, they a
Page 63 and 64: Chapter 3: Spirituality of silence
Page 65 and 66: which the spiritual pilgrim finds t
Page 67 and 68: Lord, to pray my whole life long wi
Page 69 and 70: Encounters with silence: strictures
Page 71 and 72: a long highway filled by a column o
Page 73 and 74: gaze; they prefer to stay safe, ris
Page 75 and 76: This experience is life’s true es
Page 77 and 78: Christians can experience the full
Page 79 and 80: Rahner does not claim for himself t
Page 81 and 82: example, it would limit God to say,
Page 83 and 84: will and love of God: then the diam
Page 85 and 86: Echoes of Ignatius’ Exercises are
Page 87 and 88: Chapter 4: The human experience of
Page 89 and 90: proximity, the silence that leads e
Page 91 and 92: ‘listening to the freely proffere
Page 93 and 94: approach; he is not arguing against
Page 95 and 96: must occur in history—time, space
Page 97 and 98: The most obvious criticism of Rahne
Page 99 and 100: Schleiermacher: seeking to build a
Page 101 and 102: and his meditations in Encounters w
Page 103 and 104: theological method, and the importa
Page 105 and 106: spirit dancing together in apprecia
Page 107: choosing to enter into the mystery
Page 111 and 112: possibilities but without a definit
Page 113 and 114: theologie) in which Rahner’s prim
Page 115 and 116: • around the concept and meaning
Page 117 and 118: knowledge. For we are not saved by
Page 119 and 120: silent experience of God—is able
Page 121 and 122: the immanent life of God’ 120 . T
Page 123 and 124: Investigations much like the biblic
Page 125 and 126: abandonment to the eternal life in
Page 127 and 128: Theology of mystery as dynamic chal
Page 129 and 130: ecause the phonetic sound of the wo
Page 131 and 132: alone that enables individuals to f
Page 133 and 134: Chapter 5: Word and sacrament—exp
Page 135 and 136: The centrality of scripture, and it
Page 137 and 138: What makes the words of scripture d
Page 139 and 140: silence. He felt that the movement
Page 141 and 142: with humanity—his ‘economic’
Page 143 and 144: Having discerned their revelatory c
Page 145 and 146: fulfilment in following the absolut
Page 147 and 148: Rahner’s transcendental perspecti
Page 149 and 150: toward which it points. God’s wor
Page 151 and 152: sacramental: a sign in which God’
Page 153 and 154: In light of the implications of Rah
Page 155 and 156: who, like mystics, experience such
Page 157 and 158: The juxtaposition of two articles
Page 159 and 160:
These two interpretations of Rahner
Page 161 and 162:
Rahner advocates that all believers
Page 163 and 164:
The sacrament of the wordIn reflect
Page 165 and 166:
‘theological aesthetics’. With
Page 167 and 168:
Many things in life act as signs th
Page 169 and 170:
Rahner’s dual commitment to recei
Page 171 and 172:
living human being, and each indivi
Page 173 and 174:
The church is sacramental in the se
Page 175 and 176:
spiritual rhythms that trace direct
Page 177 and 178:
the missionary tasks of the Church;
Page 179 and 180:
unhelpful assumptions that diminish
Page 181 and 182:
expressions of mystagogical 142 ini
Page 183 and 184:
Does this lead Rahner into compromi
Page 185 and 186:
) ) an ongoing contemporary influen
Page 187 and 188:
Hosek shifts the soteriological foc
Page 189 and 190:
Is this vision of silent spirituali
Page 191 and 192:
Being in silence as a way of creati
Page 193 and 194:
word of life and hope within them.
Page 195 and 196:
Level 1:PremoralStage 2:Instrumenta
Page 197 and 198:
These new monastics see the local c
Page 199 and 200:
eliefs that have been tried and tes
Page 201 and 202:
of mature theological reflection co
Page 203 and 204:
ecognised in his Christological ass
Page 205 and 206:
inability or unwillingness of the e
Page 207 and 208:
Kanyini—an Australian Aboriginal
Page 209 and 210:
The film Kanyini demonstrates the c
Page 211 and 212:
estless and always in a hurry to ge
Page 213 and 214:
considered the sole and ultimate au
Page 215 and 216:
We define spirituality as a conscio
Page 217 and 218:
supportive conversation with expres
Page 219 and 220:
A glance at table 4 75 (above), Hug
Page 221 and 222:
In the worldview of contemporary Au
Page 223 and 224:
It certainly seems somewhat disinge
Page 225 and 226:
A good starting point for examining
Page 227 and 228:
Christian contemplative-prayer trad
Page 229 and 230:
Of course, a small number of the vi
Page 231 and 232:
For better or for worse, and despit
Page 233 and 234:
energy, intellect, prayer, love and
Page 235 and 236:
Rahner, K. Karl Rahner - Prayers an
Page 237 and 238:
Kelly, G.B. (ed.). Karl Rahner - th
Page 239 and 240:
Van Vorst, B. ‘Kung and Rahner: d
Page 241 and 242:
Harden, J.A. ‘Ignatian Spirituali
Page 243:
Tyson, P. ‘Contemporary Australia
show all

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?