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

The counter to Rahner’s complex, ‘scientific’ 58 theologising: his far more readable bookson prayer, spirituality, and his recorded homilies. Here it seems that Rahner, like IgnatiusLoyola (the founder of the order), writes down what has been helpful in his own spirituallife and invites others to use these writings as a starting point and guide to their ownspiritual journey. It is often noted that Rahner’s first and last books are collections ofprayers—one written at the beginning of his career (Encounters with silence) and onepublished at the very end (Prayers for a lifetime). Modras comments that these twoprayer books are ‘no less important or substantiative than his more scholarly essays’ 59 ,echoing the common sentiment expressed by various Rahner scholars 60 that the essenceof Rahner’s thinking can be accessed through his devotional works; this genre allowsRahner’s underlying intellectual arguments to be expressed more implicitly and hisspecifically Christian vocabulary to be expressed more explicitly 61 .As reading Rahner in both genres reveals the echoes of each in the other, this thesisargues that one theologian is present in two genres: there is never a time when Rahnerwrites with an exclusive bent to intellectual scholarship, or when his intellectual viewsare not an expression of his devotional experience of God.Content—theological compression and unfoldingRahner has a reputation as a theologian of great breadth in the scope of his topicalconcerns. It is also often said that he is not ‘systematic’: it is difficult to identify aparticular theme or structure for his overall work.Although this is true in part, there is also a significant view that Rahner’s multi-faceted,complex project does indeed reveal a centralising principle and locus. Egan explains hisview of this central principle as follows:58 A word that Rahner used in relation to the intellectual demands of Christian theologising.59 Ibid, 205.60 See for example Vorgrimler, Understanding Karl Rahner, 10; D. Marmion, A spirituality of everydayfaith – a theological investigation of the notion of spirituality in Karl Rahner (Louvain: Peeters Press,1998), 41-53; J. O’Donnell, Karl Rahner – Life in the Spirit (Rome: Gregorian University Press, 2004), 8.61 For a discussion on Rahner’s explicit Christian vocabulary in his ‘spiritual’ writings see, J. Bacik, ‘IsRahner obsolete ? – what his critics get wrong’, Commonweal 132 (2) (2005): 23.19