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and it soon became obvious that he was dying. Somehow, during this period ofconfinement and almost complete physical debilitation, Rahner managed to write a letterto the bishops of Peru in support of the liberation theologian, Gustavo Gutiérrez: his finalcorrespondence and pastoral action. Karl Rahner died at the University Medical Clinic ofInnsbruck on the evening of 30 March 1984 89 .Reflection: ‘Spirituality of Silence’ in Karl Rahner’s life and workA contemplative reading of this biographical sketch reveals a predominant themeregarding the substance of Rahner’s spirituality of silence: a practice of deep andpenetrating listening. In the first instance, the young Karl Rahner learned, through theIgnatian disciplines, to listen to God and encounter the substance and reality of the divinebeing apart from words, and through the senses of his grace-empowered spiritualintuition.You are the last answer, even though incomprehensible, to all the questions of myheart. I know why You are silent: Your silence is the framework of my faith, theboundless space where my love finds the strength to believe in Your Love 90 .In the same way, Rahner believed that the best possible way to support human beings intheir journey towards God was to facilitate space for people to encounter God himself,not merely preach words about God.What also becomes clear in Rahner’s biography is his deep and penetrating listening tothe voice of Christian tradition. Rahner believed that God had spoken in unique andauthoritative ways to particular people, in particular times in history, with particularrelevance to their existential concerns. The goal of Rahner’s intense scholarly energy; hisreading and rereading of the Fathers and various spiritual classics, as well as the HolyScriptures; his earnest desire to listen, to hear, to sit silently before the voice of tradition:that he might discern the essential meaning and presence of God’s spirit within theteachings of the church.89 Dych, Karl Rahner, 14-15.90 Rahner, Encounters with silence, 56.27
We see from Rahner’s pastoral concerns, which emerge from his perception of the gulfbetween the doctrines of the church and the experience of everyday people, that heexercised a deep posture of listening to the voice of contemporary culture. This enabledhim to penetrate the ‘white noise’ of the ecclesial ghetto and to break through into a deepempathy with regard to the spiritual needs of the broadest constituency. His spirituality ofsilence enabled him to hear things that other church leaders—their ears blocked with thecotton wool of uncritically examined theological ‘formulas’—were simply not able todetect. In his attempt to enable his beloved church to exercise a ministry of word andsacrament that connects with the reality of human existence and the potentialincarnational spirituality of everyday life, Rahner exercised a deep and profoundlydisciplined listening to the contemporary voices of western philosophical traditions.Karl Rahner has gained a reputation for his complex and prolific use of words. He has—particularly amongst theology students and professors of theology—a reputation foracademic prose that borders on the undecipherable in its multi-layered dimensions ofexpression and meaning. Despite this complexity, his words have penetrated the humanunderstanding and experience of God both deeply and broadly. The eloquence andprofundity of Rahner emerges most poignantly from his spirituality of silence, expressedin part through a deep and penetrating posture of listening. It is this posture of listening,in all of its facets, that enables Rahner—when he does speak—to penetrate to the heart ofthe being of fellow humans, facilitating a space for a journey of spiritual companionshipin the deepest places of individuals’ experiences of both themselves and God.28
Page 1 and 2: ‘A Spirituality of silence’An i
Page 3 and 4: Chapter 4: The human experience of
Page 5 and 6: Summary of thesis:This thesis offer
Page 7 and 8: The particular angle from which thi
Page 9 and 10: somewhat superseded by more recent
Page 11 and 12: Rahner: I have nothing against that
Page 13 and 14: One brief but notable spiritual inf
Page 15 and 16: dialectic between these two, has le
Page 17 and 18: odies of knowledge, history and alt
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Page 21 and 22: High School Week, Rahner began his
Page 23 and 24: Earlier in this chapter, Rahner’s
Page 25 and 26: These anecdotes testify that Rahner
Page 27 and 28: As you see, at the top of the carto
Page 29 and 30: Central to Rahner’s thinking is t
Page 31 and 32: Kilby notes that in regard to this
Page 33 and 34: Introduced by Cardinal König to a
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Page 39 and 40: European power 4 , and that he was
Page 41 and 42: Over a period of days and weeks, th
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Page 45 and 46: Modras has pointed out that Ignatiu
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Page 49 and 50: facilitate this joyful and liberati
Page 51 and 52: Rahner’s often-quoted comment tha
Page 53 and 54: The master of the Exercises in no w
Page 55 and 56: Endean argues that Rahner is interp
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Page 61 and 62: their existential encounter, they a
Page 63 and 64: Chapter 3: Spirituality of silence
Page 65 and 66: which the spiritual pilgrim finds t
Page 67 and 68: Lord, to pray my whole life long wi
Page 69 and 70: Encounters with silence: strictures
Page 71 and 72: a long highway filled by a column o
Page 73 and 74: gaze; they prefer to stay safe, ris
Page 75 and 76: This experience is life’s true es
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Page 79 and 80: Rahner does not claim for himself t
Page 81 and 82: example, it would limit God to say,
Page 83 and 84: will and love of God: then the diam
Page 85 and 86: 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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spiritual rhythms that trace direct
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the missionary tasks of the Church;
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unhelpful assumptions that diminish
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expressions of mystagogical 142 ini
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Does this lead Rahner into compromi
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) ) an ongoing contemporary influen
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Hosek shifts the soteriological foc
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Is this vision of silent spirituali
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Being in silence as a way of creati
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word of life and hope within them.
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Level 1:PremoralStage 2:Instrumenta
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These new monastics see the local c
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eliefs that have been tried and tes
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of mature theological reflection co
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ecognised in his Christological ass
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inability or unwillingness of the e
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Kanyini—an Australian Aboriginal
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The film Kanyini demonstrates the c
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estless and always in a hurry to ge
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considered the sole and ultimate au
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We define spirituality as a conscio
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supportive conversation with expres
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A glance at table 4 75 (above), Hug
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In the worldview of contemporary Au
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It certainly seems somewhat disinge
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A good starting point for examining
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Christian contemplative-prayer trad
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Of course, a small number of the vi
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For better or for worse, and despit
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energy, intellect, prayer, love and
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Rahner, K. Karl Rahner - Prayers an
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Kelly, G.B. (ed.). Karl Rahner - th
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Van Vorst, B. ‘Kung and Rahner: d
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Harden, J.A. ‘Ignatian Spirituali
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Tyson, P. ‘Contemporary Australia
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