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

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Peterson discusses his determination to disentangle himself from the business of ‘runninga church’ and its associated self-survival questions: ‘What do we do? How can we getthings going again?’ Instead, Peterson began to orientate his vocation around ‘cure-ofsouls’questions.What has God been doing here? What traces of grace can I discern in this life?What history of love can I read in this group? What has God set in motion that Ican get in on? 88Eugene Peterson’s ‘ancient–future faith’ reconstruction of the mainstream evangelicalpastoral vocation is mirrored for youth ministry practitioners by Kenda Creasy Dean andRon Foster. Their seminal text The Godbearing life—the art of soul tending for youthministry 89 leads youth workers away from a programmed, hyperactivity and consumeristapproach to ‘keeping young people in the church’ towards a practice of spiritualmentoring that draws significantly from the Christian spirituality tradition andexemplifies an intergenerational approach.Texts like Dean and Foster’s are early representations of a growing trend, usuallyidentified with the concept of ‘emergent’ 90 ; this trend looks in part to the classic spiritualtraditions of the past as a way of responding meaningfully to the present. Another recentexample is Brian McLaren’s Finding our way again—the return of ancient practices 91 .McLaren acknowledges both contemplative influences (Foster, Willard and Chittister)and his debt to socially-active integrators (Campolo, Wallis and Sider) 92 . From thebeginning, the text sets the tone of ‘active–contemplative’ in the spirituality tradition. The‘New Monastics’ movement 93 (see the discussion focusing on moral development) is oneof the more radical embodiments of the ‘new’ evangelical active–contemplativespirituality. Moya Ratnayake has encouraged youth workers in the UK to embrace the88 Ibid, 61.89 (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 1998).90 Usually describing people of conservative Evangelical heritage attempting to honour elements of theirheritage at the same time as exploring and experimenting spiritually, ecclesially and theologically acrossthe diversity of Christian traditions and in dialogue with the broader culture and in particular, thepostmodern suggestion of mystery and multiplicity of meaning.91 (Nashville: Tomas Nelson, 2008).92 Ibid, vii.93 See R. Moll, ‘The new monasticism,’ Christianity Today (Sept 2005): 38-46; S. Claiborne, The irrestiblerevolution : living as an ordinary radical ( Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan,, 2006).217
Christian contemplative–prayer tradition in their work with both young people and withtheir youth work colleagues. She argues that the contemplative tradition contributes togeneral mental health and psycho–social identity development in addition to nurturingspiritual growth 94 . In his novel Meeting Emma 95 , Australian Michael Spyker offers ahypothetical model of informal spiritual direction (or mentoring) in contemporaryAustralia: a twenty-something arts student discovers the spiritual meaning of herneglected childhood faith by exploring ancient contemplative practices taught to her by‘Joe’, a lecturer in spiritual theology.The spirituality reflected in these texts emphasises an affective, mystical process ofspiritual growth, exploration, and a possible ongoing conversion to Christianity; theapproach and methodology point to a more dialogical and experiential way of workingthat suggests benefits for ministry with people both inside and outside the church.Processes of informal spiritual direction that draw from the tradition and are embodied inthe contemporary format of fluid and non-hierarchical mentoring conversations, seem toconnect closely to what young people are saying they find most helpful in exploring theirlife’s meaning.It seems obvious to me that Karl Rahner embodied for the Roman Catholic communitymuch of what Webber’s ‘younger evangelicals’ are trying to accomplish today. Rahner isin many ways the penultimate ancient–future spiritual theologian of the twentiethcentury: the deep listener to the culture, the deep listener to the ancients, with a deepcommitment to experience the spiritual essence of the ancient faith. He writes about hisexperiences to enable others to be drawn into the ancient mysteries ‘made new’. Youngerevangelicals could learn from this older Roman Catholic, particularly in relation to hisembodiment of experiences of God in silence—in particular, the idea of listening to thesilence of God, rather than being in silence always with the hope of hearing a word fromGod. This dimension is not obvious in many of the younger evangelical/emergent texts. If‘Silence is God’s first language’—a contemporary interpretation of St. John of the94 See, Tune-in, Chill-out - using contemplative prayer in youth work (Birmingham: Christian educationPublishers, 2004): 9-19.95 (Adelaide, SA: Openbook, 2004).218
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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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living human being, and each indivi
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The church is sacramental in the se
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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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