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

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suffering significant psychological stress at any one time 58 . With so much literature onrisk and resilience and positive youth development relating to the presence or absence ofmeaningful relational connections 59 , isn’t there an urgency to learn from a spirituality thatdefines itself through connectedness? Shouldn’t students from the majority population beencouraged to reflect on the meaning of the four pillars for their own lives and culture?The elephant in the room is the economic machine that continues to dominate and drivenotions of progress and productivity in Western cultures—a great, looming, rarely namedgod of destruction, a sacred holy cow whose authority can never be seriously and directlychallenged by the mainstream systems that are embedded in its largesse.The main point of Kanyini, however, in the context of this thesis is that yet again itconfronts Western Christianity with a message of a spirituality that, despite emergingfrom outside of the recognised Christian community, resonates with meanings suggestiveof an ‘anonymous’ Christian faith. The following material is an excerpt from a keynoteaddress given by me to a conference of chaplains in South Australian governmentschools 60 . It offers a theological reflection on the meaning of the film Kanyini and issignificantly influenced by Karl Rahner’s sacramental theology and the Ignatian idea ofGod in all things.The sacramental wayThere is a way of walking through this life and this world that tramples on thecreation, that rides roughshod over human dignity, and exploits the resources ofthe many to enlarge the profits of the few. There is a way of walking through thislife that is driven by status anxiety that pits each person in competition with theother and views people and natural resources as a means towards a productivityand status goal. There is a way of walking through this life that is prayerless,58 See Richard Eckersley, ‘Never better – or getting worse? The health and wellbeing of young Australians’(Australia 21, 2008). Retrieved, November 16, 2008, fromhttp://www.australia21.org.au/pdf/Youth%20Health%20Text%2008.pdf59 See for example: L Martin, The invisible table (South Melbourne: Thomson/Dunmore Press, 2002); A.Fuller, From surviving to thriving – promoting mental health in young people (Camberwell, Vic: ACER,1998); P. Benson, ‘Developmental assets and asset-building community: conceptual and empiricalfoundations’, in Lerner, R. & Benson, P. eds., Developmental assets and asset-building communities (NewYork: Kluwer Academic, 2003), 19-43.60 Annual state chaplains conference hosted and facilitated by the Schools Ministry Group of SouthAustralia, Hahndorf Resort, Hahndorf, SA, May 2008.201
estless and always in a hurry to get to the next place, and never being at any onetime in this place and this moment. There is a way of walking through this lifethat prizes accomplishment over beauty, winning over being, accumulation oversharing, and being seen to be always right over humility and reciprocal learning.And then there is the sacramental way.Yesterday you were exposed to an Australian aboriginal vision of a sacramentalway of living. In the film Kanyini, Bob Randall speaks to us of a way of walkingthrough the land and a way of being in creation and human community that ‘livesin the moment’, that ‘recognises the sacred in all things,’ ‘that shapes actionwithin a vision of beauty rather than productivity and accumulation’. Bob Randallspeaks to us of the intrinsic relationship between spirituality and health andwellbeing. When people are connected to a belief system, a spirituality, a land anda family, they are confident; they are strong, and they live in a way that isbeautiful.I experienced the message of Kanyini as a proclamation of the Kingdom of God.Whenever the Kingdom is proclaimed we are made sad because the Kingdomstrips away the social and cultural masks of our corporate sins and our individualparticipation in systems that destroy and kill. The proclamation of the Kingdomalso brings us hope because it brings us back to our senses and restores our visionof what makes us truly human. Remorse and confession are necessary responsesthat lead us beyond sadness and into the joy of repentance that has to do with theconstruction of a new way of being.There is so much in our Christian tradition that speaks to us of a sacramental way:o our theology of Incarnation proclaims to us that ‘God so loved the worldthat he came for an extended visit’—the ‘Word became flesh and made hisdwelling amongst us’ (John 1:14a);o the gospel parables show us that Jesus was involved in a ministry ofhelping people to see that the kingdom of God is near—its images, itsnuances, its values, its mysticism is reflected in the stuff of everyday life;if you want a parable that vividly connects the ideas of the Kingdom ofGod with the very concrete human realities of health and wellbeing, go nofurther than Luke’s story of the ‘good Samaritan’;o our theology of creation shows us a vision of the Spirit of God sustainingand recreating each and every element of our natural world. The sametheology also reveals the ultimate dignity and beauty of all humanity in theImago Dei—the image of God.202
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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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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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Page 209: The film Kanyini demonstrates the c
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Page 215 and 216: We define spirituality as a conscio
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Page 219 and 220: A glance at table 4 75 (above), Hug
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Page 229 and 230: Of course, a small number of the vi
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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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