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

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His decision to join the Jesuits, however, does not seem to be related to any particular orsensational religious experience. In fact, in his later years, Rahner was unable to recall orarticulate his primary motivations for entering the order. When questioned he used theanalogy of a long-term marriage to highlight the significance of his journey in the orderrather than discuss the original reasons behind his choice to join:Sometime ask an average man, married some fifty or sixty years, what reallyprompted him to marry this particular Maria Meier. If he doesn’t fib or hasn’tlived a life of intense self-reflection, he’s likely to say: ‘I completely admit thefact that I did that. I was faithful to my decision and was happy thoughout the fiftyor sixty years of my marriage’. I also accept the fact that normal humanmotivations prompted my decision. But I cannot give you any more exactpsychological information 12 .The meager data on Rahner’s teenage years provide a little more scope for speculationthan this direct, somewhat evasive13 , response.Vorgrimler notes that, throughout his schooling years, Rahner understood himself asbeing more inclined towards the religious aspects of his upbringing than most other boysand girls of his age. Ironically, though Rahner’s secondary school teacher of religion, Dr.Meinrad Vogelbacher, seems to have been influential, he was not enthusiastic aboutRahner’s intention to join the Jesuit order: ‘No, Karl isn’t suited for that. He’s toowithdrawn and grumpy. He should become something else’ 14 .Rahner’s elder brother Hugo preceded him into the Jesuit order by three years; althoughhe did not discuss his decision with him—‘Alamannian Germans do not speak muchabout such things’ (being emotionally reserved)—Rahner does recall ‘trembling as Ishyly informed him—by letter…that I also wanted to be a Jesuit’ 15 .12 Rahner, I remember, 35.13 Rahner was notoriously reluctant to speak about his personal life or feelings in any great detail, in directconversation.14 Ibid, 26.15 Ibid, 36.3
One brief but notable spiritual influence on the adolescent Rahner was Peter GeorgioFrascati, a young man who boarded with the Rahner family long enough to leave animpression vividly recalled by Rahner over sixty years later:In a certain way, he was really a strange fellow—athletic, a mountain climber.Skier, rider, a funny, happy man who mixed with other students in the liveliest,even wildest way. He told me himself that as a Catholic student in Rome hesquabbled with the fascist students from the very beginning…On the other handhe was an extraordinarily pious person who prayed, who went to Mass almostevery day before the rest of the family got up, and who also displayedextraordinary social concern, as we would call it today, for the poor. It seems hedied from this work, eventually contracting polio in this environment. And hethought of the poor until the last hours of his life. Perhaps he will be beatified 16 .Whilst Rahner does not suggest that Frascati influenced his decision to join the order, theactive/contemplative features of the profile seem to point towards the spirituality of StIgnatius. Whilst Frascati’s personality is obviously quite different to Rahner’s (he wasneither athletic nor extroverted) their spirituality is strikingly similar. Rahner, too, was avery human man who integrated a genuine love of life with an intense piety and realsocial concern. Rahner’s description of Frascati’s ‘thinking of the poor until the lasthours’ was to play out in his own experience of his final days, as noted by G Kelly:Although fatally ill, Rahner found the strength to dictate a letter to Cardinal JuanLandazuri Ricketts, archbishop of Lima, and through him to the Peruvian bishopsasking them to extend their protection and understanding to Gustavo Gutiérrez,whose life was said to be in danger and whose liberation theology was then underVatican suspicion and scrutiny 17 .Characteristically, Rahner’s youthful sacrifice (future marriage, family and the pursuit ofa secular career in exchange for a lifetime of chastity, material simplicity and obedience)did not result from a ‘Damascus road’ experience; his decision to join the Jesuits reads asthe undramatic natural consequence of an emerging orientation towards a life of prayerand an interest in the mission and liturgical life of the church. ‘Ordinariness,’ ‘nondramatic’and ‘lacking in major events’ are descriptors that frequently appear in the16 Ibid, 33.17 From the introduction to his editorial presentation of Rahner in, Karl Rahner – theologian of the gracedsearch for meaning, (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1992), 30.4
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: Rahner: I have nothing against that
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
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which the spiritual pilgrim finds t
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Lord, to pray my whole life long wi
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Encounters with silence: strictures
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a long highway filled by a column o
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gaze; they prefer to stay safe, ris
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This experience is life’s true es
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Christians can experience the full
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Rahner does not claim for himself t
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example, it would limit God to say,
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will and love of God: then the diam
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Echoes of Ignatius’ Exercises are
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Chapter 4: The human experience of
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proximity, the silence that leads e
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‘listening to the freely proffere
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approach; he is not arguing against
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must occur in history—time, space
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The most obvious criticism of Rahne
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Schleiermacher: seeking to build a
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and his meditations in Encounters w
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theological method, and the importa
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spirit dancing together in apprecia
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choosing to enter into the mystery
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may be described as a ‘mysticism
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possibilities but without a definit
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theologie) in which Rahner’s prim
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• around the concept and meaning
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knowledge. For we are not saved by
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silent experience of God—is able
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the immanent life of God’ 120 . T
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Investigations much like the biblic
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abandonment to the eternal life in
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Theology of mystery as dynamic chal
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ecause the phonetic sound of the wo
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alone that enables individuals to f
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Chapter 5: Word and sacrament—exp
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The centrality of scripture, and it
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What makes the words of scripture d
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silence. He felt that the movement
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with humanity—his ‘economic’
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Having discerned their revelatory c
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fulfilment in following the absolut
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Rahner’s transcendental perspecti
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toward which it points. God’s wor
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sacramental: a sign in which God’
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In light of the implications of Rah
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who, like mystics, experience such
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The juxtaposition of two articles
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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
Page 225 and 226:
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
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
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