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

Rahner the Ignatian spiritual directorThe centrality and significance of Ignatian spirituality for Rahner can be explored fromthree perspectives: his lifelong practice of introducing others to the Spiritual Exercises;his statements about the spirituality of Ignatius; his literary technique of speaking asIgnatius in his later writings.Kevin O’Brien, in a brief pastoral biography of Karl Rahner, makes the followingcomment: ‘Rahner directed and preached the Spiritual Exercises of St.Ignatius more than50 times’ 33 . Egan provides more detail:Two thirty-day retreats and yearly eight-day retreats based on the IgnatianExercises were part of Rahner’s sixty-two Jesuit years. From the time of hisordination in 1932 until his death in 1984, Rahner gave and preached on these34Exercises over fifty times .These brief comments, when considered against the immense workload that Rahnermanaged in his multiple roles as lecturer, supervisor, researcher, author, editor andspeaker in demand, are illuminating. Somehow this incredibly busy academic carved outthe time and space to introduce others to the spiritual method that had been so profoundin his own formation. In his own words (Rahner is talking about himself in third person):He has often given eight-day retreats, based on the Spiritual Exercises of St.Ignatius, to young candidates for the priesthood—especially in theBerchmannskolleg in Pullach near Munich, and also in the Germanicum inRome 35 .The publication Spiritual Exercises, which cites Karl Rahner as the author, is in fact anedited version36 of the verbatim notes taken by eager students on two of these retreats.When Rahner speaks in later life of the ultimate significance of Ignatian spirituality 37 , itis not merely a sentimental reminiscence of a youthful mystical experience but anindication that this spiritual practice continued to be central to his vocation.33 ‘Thursdays with Rahner’, America 190 (15) (March 2004): 8.34 Mystic of everyday life, 28.35 K. Rahner, Spiritual Exercises, Trans. K.Baker (London: Sheed and Ward, 1966), 7.36 Rahner himself had no redactive part in this; the task was undertaken by former students and colleagueswhom Rahner trusted to present the essence of his thought on the Exercises. See ibid.37 Philip Endean notes that Rahner’s explicit focus on Ignatius and declaration of his significance andcentral importance seems to have been a definitive movement in his post-retirement years, from the 70’suntil his death in 1984, Karl Rahner and Ignatian spirituality, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 5.38