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

the missionary tasks of the Church; that it clouds the meaning of Church; that itshows insensitivity to the religious commitment of other people 125 .Drawing attention to Hans Urs von Balthasar’s fears that the idea of an anonymousChristian threatens to blur the confessional boundaries between church and world, andthat the phrase belittles other faiths and ideologies, Worthing demonstrates Balthasar isanxious over the reverse implications of the anonymous Christian: of people of otherfaiths and ideologies labelling Christians as ‘anonymous’ atheists, Muslims or Buddhists,thus mutually diminishing the value of explicit faith confession126 .Eamonn Conway notes that Balthasar is against the idea of the anonymous Christianbecause he believed it was more closely related to a secular philosophical epistemologythan to the biblical witness and because he felt that its effects where both compromisingand debilitating the church 127 . Balthasar’s pointed criticism of the post-Vatican IImovements of the Roman Catholic church clearly have the concept of the anonymousChristian—perceived as having been adopted by the council—in his sights.The Church seems to me to be a little like a watering-can with a hole in it. Whenthe gardener comes to the flower-bed which he wishes to water, there is nothingleft within. The Church reflects too little on the treasure in the field. She has soldmuch. But has she really got the treasure in return? She has descended into the128valley of democracy. But can she still be the city on the hill-top?Worthing’s summary of the criticisms of the anonymous Christian 129 also show that itsinfluential Roman Catholic detractors include Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) andthe French theologian Henri de Lubac. Worthing suggests Ratzinger considers theanonymous Christian as a general humanistic idea of self-actualisation veiled thinly withthe language of Christian theology.125 ‘The anonymous Christian and Christology,’Missiology 6 (1) (1978):30.126 Ibid, 286.127 E. Conway, The anonymous Christian – a relativised Christianity? – an evaluation of Hans Urs VonBalthasar’s criticisms of Karl Rahner’s theory of the anonymous Christian, European University Studies,Series 23, Vol. 485, New York: Peter Lang, 1993, 35-61.128 In ibid, 57.129 Foundations and functions of theology, 167-289.168