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

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In light of this very real challenge what does the perspective of Rahner’s spirituality ofsilence have to offer? Perhaps it is helpful to notice that Rahner himself clearly reflectsall that can be said of a person who has worked through the critical and complex latterstages of faith development theory. Rahner’s is most definitely an examined faith that hasled him to the most generous and inclusive of views regarding the post-resurrectionspiritual state of the entire human family. Rahner is also able to hold in tension hisuniversal vision of a graced world with the absolute conviction of the divinity of Christand the unique saving role he has and continues to fulfill through the sacramental life ofthe church. Rahner models the journey through the faith development stages,demonstrating a faith that rests in a God-confidence deeper than words. Such a faithtranscends the need for cultural hegemonic doctrinal affirmation whilst maintaining avibrant witness to the spiritual essence of the Christianity from which it draws its life.Is it possible that an insistence on faith as valid only within a particular systematicdoctrinal view of Christ is less a statement of orthodoxy and more a characteristic ofeither the mythic–literal faith stage (middle childhood) or the synthetic–conventionalstage (adolescence)? In the former stage, the world is perceived in the black and whiteterms of the narrative of fixed understandings of ‘good’ and ‘bad’, and the principle ofcosmic justice in relation to both. In the latter stage, the beliefs of individuals are stronglyinfluenced by the significant others in their social group and it is very important to eachindividual that everyone in the group believes exactly the same things. Does a spiritualityof silence point toward a better way? Can the contemporary church accept the challengeof living from the truth of its existential reality in Christ even when the culture no longeraccepts or affirms uncritically this reality as a universal given? Can individuals accept aspiritual direction that invites them to ground their faith in the deeply personal mystery ofthe ‘I AM’, even in the face of contradictions to their conceptualisations of cosmic justiceand their anticipated faith outcomes? Of course the church will always be made up ofdiverse people who experience faith across the stage development process. Is it possibleto demonstrate that Rahner’s spirituality of silence represents a model of what higherfaith stage development within a Christian framework may look like, and that this model191
of mature theological reflection could guide the ongoing dialogue in ministry within aspiritually pluralised culture?SQ: spiritual intelligenceAt the turn of the millennium, Oxford-based academics, Danah Zohar and Ian Marshallpublished a book that introduced the idea of spiritual intelligence as a universal humancapacity 26 . The authors propose that SQ relates to a tertiary neurological process thatcentralises a meaning-based process of decision-making, creating dialogue between theFreudian Id and Ego and the corresponding notions of IQ (intellectual quotient based onserial neural wiring) and EQ 27 (emotional quotient based on associative neural wiring):SQ (based on the brain’s third neural system, the synchronous neural oscillationsthat unify data across the whole brain) offers a viable tertiary process…[that]unifies, integrates and has the potential to transform material arising from theother two processes. It facilitates a dialogue between reason and emotion, betweenmind and body. It provides a fulcrum for growth and transformation. It provides28the self with an active, unifying, meaning-giving centre .Zohar and Marshall argue that human beings are essentially spiritual creatures because oftheir capacity to question the meaning of their existence and to actively seek reasons forthe how and why of living. The authors offer a variety of special functions and capacitieswhich they attribute to SQ.SQ gives us our ability to discriminate. It gives us our moral sense, an ability totemper rigid rules with understanding and compassion and an equal ability to seewhere compassion and understanding have their limits. We use SQ to wrestle withquestions of good and evil and to envision unrealized possibilities—to dream, toaspire, to raise ourselves out of the mud…Spiritual intelligence is the soul’sintelligence. It is the intelligence with which we heal ourselves and with which wemake ourselves whole…We use SQ to be creative. We call upon it when we needto be flexible, visionary or creatively spontaneous…We use SQ to deal withexistential problems…where we feel stuck…SQ makes us aware that we haveexistential problems, and it enables us to solve them—or at least to find peaceabout them. It gives us a ‘deep’ sense of what life’s struggles are about. SQ is ourcompass ‘at the edge’ 29 .The authors assert that their book is important for three reasons:26 SQ—spiritual intelligence, the ultimate intelligence (London: Bloomsbury, 2000).27 Theorised and popularised by Daniel Goleman, Emotional intelligence (London: Bloomsbury, 1995).28 SQ, 7.29 Ibid, 5, 9 & 13.192
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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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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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Page 229 and 230: Of course, a small number of the vi
Page 231 and 232: For better or for worse, and despit
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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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