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

But what about the times when no word is forthcoming? What about long-term illnesses,the unexpected tragedies and the day-to-day trials when it seems that God is silent? Whatabout the long silences between the occasional divine words of comfort?In Encounters, Rahner demonstrates that the absolute silence of God is also a form ofGod’s word. It is however, an implicit word, an ‘invisible word’ without concrete form orsubstance. The task for Christian seekers is to grow in their spiritual capacity forinterpreting the silence of God.Rahner offers Christians an understanding of the resources they have to facilitate theirinterpreting God’s silence. Rahner’s theology of the word—in fact his whole approach tohis creative theological project—implies Christian have a freedom in the Spirit to reflectcarefully on the interplay between external word and the spiritual intuition of prayer.Rahner’s theology of the word leads Christians from being passive hearers of the word tobecoming dynamic and proactive relational interpreters of the heart and mind of God.This is what Rahner means by his concept of the spiritually formative purpose anddynamic of the silence of God.You are the last answer, even though incomprehensible, to all the questions of myheart. I know why You are silent: Your silence is the framework of my faith, theboundless space where my love finds the strength to believe in Your Love 86 .A reflection on Rahner’s theology of the word and the meaning of this for a Christianunderstanding of a spirituality of silence points clearly to Rahner’s late-life emphasis onthe importance of Ignatian spirituality. Rahner asserts that the exercises and their relatedprayer structure make sacred space possible. Here the human silence of stillness andmeditation engages with the living spirituality of categorical revelation, in the form ofscripture supported and permeated by the inner graced narrative of God the Holy Spirit.In this sacred space God may be ‘heard’ and his silences interpreted. This understandinginforms Rahner’s much-repeated conviction that the ‘Christian of the future will be amystic or…will not exist at all’87.86 Encounters with silence, 56.87 K. Rahner, ‘The Spirituality of the Church of the Future’, Theological Investigations Vol. 20, Trans.Quinn, E. (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1981), 149.153