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

the Trinity, longing is fulfilled; human orientation towards divinity has beenconsummated 107 .Rahner’s concept of mystery has nothing to do with a multiplicity of propositionalstatements that must be accepted as mysteries on the basis of ecclesiastic insistence andrational intelligibility. Rather, mystery is synonymous with the concept of the eternal andimmediate presence of the divine being. ‘Mystery is already there with the very essenceof the natural and supernaturally elevated being of…[humanity] 108 . The relevance of the‘plural mysteries’ of Christian doctrine—a closing footnote to the second lecture—becomes the major focus of the third.Rahner’s initial comments in regard to the nature of Christian doctrine as mystery seem atfirst to be rather dismissive if not derogatory. He views Christian doctrine as at bestrepresenting a ‘derivative’ and ‘secondary’ mystery arising in the first instance from theconstantly present primordial mystery. He goes on to state that so-called ‘individualmysteries’ are not mysteries in the original sense of the meaning of God as mystery‘because they do not seem to leave the mystery to subsist as it is, but claim to knowsomething definitive about it which will satisfy curiosity’ 109 . What is better, according toRahner, is ‘a silent reverence for the nameless’. As he develops his argument on thistopic, Rahner demonstrates Christian doctrine has a definitive place as the enhancer of agraced response to the proximity of the mystery.Delineating between the natural and graced state of humanity with reference to theessential role of theology, Rahner argues that a philosophy of religion may identifyhumanity as transcendent and orientated towards the infinite horizon, but cannot provideany meaning, resolution or fulfilment for the transcendental state. Only theology, throughrevelation not confined to words but also as the result of the inner giving of grace—the107 Ibid, 59.108 Ibid.109 Ibid, 60.109