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

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comes with the territory of their anthropology. However, people may choose one of threecommon forms of transcendent evasion:a) a naïve preoccupation with the controllable world of the concrete andmaterial, where the questions of meaning are suppressed by their beingignored;b) a recognition that an ultimate question encompasses human experience butassuming that engagement with the question can be postponed, and thatattempts to find any kind of answer are fruitless;c) a focus on getting on with life’s tasks, knowing that, while an ultimatequestion encompasses everything, as there is no hope of ever finding ananswer, the question is deliberately suppressed and rejected as unanswerableand therefore meaningless 137 .Rahner suggests that a worldview that dismisses a serious engagement with the obviousreality of existential transcendence and the search for a meaningful spiritual answer to thequestions it raises is far from enlightened; the view of empirical science and humanreasoning as the ultimate evolution of human knowledge and development is in fact aform of denial and psychological repression. Rahner’s philosophical argument for atheology of mystery lays the platform for an apologetic against an exclusively secularapproach to life and against the view that Christian theology is nothing more than anoutdated relic of a pre-modern era.Rahner also reflects in Foundations on the pervasive existence of the word ‘God’ inhuman language, and what it would mean for humans as a species if this word (or a termwith equivalent meaning) were to disappear from their vocabulary.‘God’ is not just any word in which language, that is, the self-expression of theself-present of world and human existence together, grasps itself in its ground.This word exists, it belongs in a special and unique way to our world of languageand thus to our world. It is in itself a reality, and indeed one that we cannot avoid.This reality might be present speaking clearly or obscurely, softly or loudly. But itis at least there as a question… [Because the] word ‘God’ occurs as a question tous, [it] is an image and likeness of what it announces. We should not think that,137 Rahner , Foundations, 33.119
ecause the phonetic sound of the word ‘God’ is always dependent on us,therefore the word ‘God’ is also our creation. Rather it creates us because it makesus truly… [human] 138 .Rahner argues for the undeniable reality of the existence and experience of holy mysterythat has moved people to choose a name to express this reality. This name, ‘God’,constantly points humans towards the existential reality from which the expression inlanguage derives in the first place. Without the term ‘God’ or an equivalent, people forgetthe true meaning of their existence and become lost in preoccupation with the individualdetails of their existence. They would never face the totality of the world and ofthemselves as existing ‘helplessly, silently, and anxiously’. They would not notice thatonly from this location can they consider the questions—instead of asking questionsabout the questioning itself. They would not notice that their lives involve manipulatingdifferent aspects of existence rather than ever facing existence in its unity and totality.People in this state would ‘remain mired in the world and in’ themselves, ‘and no longergo through that mysterious process which’ they are139 .Thus the existence of the term ‘God’ challenges the claim that an empirical rationalworldview completely defines human experience. Such a worldview may be tempted towrite off the language as the product of a speculative psychological longing forsomething ‘other’. For Rahner, however, such a longing is clear and irrefutable evidenceof the existential reality that prompts imaginative and linguistic attempts to express thereality central to anthropology, and what ‘being human’ means.This word [‘God’] exists. It is in our history and makes our history. It is a word.For this reason one can fail to hear it, as the scripture says, which hear and do notunderstand. But it does not cease to exist because of that…it is itself the finalword before wordless and worshipful silence in the face of ineffable mystery. It isthe word which must be spoken at the conclusion of all speaking if, instead ofsilence in worship, there is not to follow that death in which…[humanity]becomes a [race of] resourceful animal[s] or…sinner[s] lost forever 140 .The argument above is primarily from the perspective of a philosophical appeal to the‘obvious’ existence of mystery: that which becomes before and after empirical138 Ibid, 50.139 Ibid, 48.140 Ibid, 51.120
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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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The Ignatian Exercises—especially
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provision of appropriate spiritual
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their existential encounter, they a
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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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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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