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• young people identify experiential learning opportunities with associatedspaces for reflection and debriefing as being the most helpful for theirspiritual growth.From young people’s responses, Hughes and Mason et al. 82 identify what helps them feelmost personally centered and de-stressed: listening to music rates highly as do work andstudy (seen as keys to achieving a happy life), and to a lesser extent, spending time innature. Both texts also identify the highest common value for Generation Y asrelationships with family and friends. Both publications note the fact that meditation andprayer scarcely rate as deliberate centering activities for young people—hardly surprisinggiven the disconnect between young people and the religious groups who teach thesepractices.Does Rahner’s spirituality of silence have any relevance to the issues facing Australianyoung people? Does it present opportunities and challenges to the Christian communityin relation to their role as offering spiritual guidance to Western cultures. Here theconcepts of ‘rhythm of connection between proclamation and contemplation’ and ‘themutual nature of spiritual direction’ seem incredibly important. Could Rahner’s ‘dynamicelement’ in the church apply in a broader sense to the dynamic possibilities of the broaderpopulation’s encounters with God’s Spirit? Is it possible to conceive a ministry of thechurch that creates culturally appropriate sacred spaces that allow young people theopportunity to explore and experience the spiritual essence of Christian proclamation,sacred spaces where their reflections on personal spiritual encounters are listened torather than corrected? Is the church willing to risk practising mutual spiritual directionthat operates on risky, experiential and conversational lines rather than the safer didacticauthoritative process of creedal insistence and/or popular persuasive preaching? Is thechurch be willing to adopt the role of midwife to the new birth, supporting the uniqueincarnations of the Spirit in immediate encounter with individuals who have not beenenculturated into the mindset of mainstream Christianity? Is it possible that the Spirit mayhave something new to say to human beings through such a living and dynamic process?82 See Putting life together, 40-55 and The spirit of Generation Y, 256-265.213
It certainly seems somewhat disingenuous for the church, in light of the research findings,to simply preach theology as fixed meaning (eg ‘four spiritual laws’), accessible onlythrough participation in unfamiliar rituals, at inconvenient times, and requiring awillingness to abandon experiential choice processes for uncritical acceptance of aworldview someone else has prepared previously. To extend the metaphor, the researchfindings suggest that contemporary young people would rather learn to cook forthemselves and be given the freedom and support to be involved in the ongoing creationand construction of new tastes, flavours and innovations in the kitchen!Ironically in light of the above, the comparative ‘success’ of the conservative Protestantchurches is notable—as is the correlation between committed participation in suchcongregations and commitment to social justice and community service 83 . ConservativeProtestant congregations tend to take seriously personal spiritual growth, offermeaningful opportunities for interaction with family and friends, and practicalopportunities for various kinds of service. Some, but not all, young people whose familyupbringing reflects the worldview of traditional Christian theology do find spiritualenlightenment, a sense of communal belonging and motivation for action within suchfaith communities. Will young people sustain conservative theological worldviews overtheir lifespan? Factors, such as the contradictions of life’s circumstances, furthereducation, and the potential for growth through adult years along the lines of faithdevelopment theory, require a different kind of spiritual direction to enable young peopleto maintain their faith. It also seems fairly clear that the spirituality of the conservativechurches remains almost exclusively accessible only to those who have been orientatedinto its tenets by accident of birth. Is there a place in such churches for a little lesspersuasive talk and a little more silent adoration of the holy mystery of transcendence?Could some small movement towards a theological posture of unknowing allow for asubsequent theological discourse that is somewhat more fluid, imaginative and open toongoing surprises, wonder and conceptual development? Could such a movement result83 A correlation also emphasised in more general terms from an international perspective by T. Donnelly etal., ‘The relationship between spiritual development and civic development’, in The handbook of spiritualdevelopment in child and adolescence, Roehlkepartain , E.C. et al. eds. (London: Sage Publications, 2006),239–51.214
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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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These two interpretations of Rahner
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Rahner advocates that all believers
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The sacrament of the wordIn reflect
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‘theological aesthetics’. With
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Many things in life act as signs th
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Rahner’s dual commitment to recei
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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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