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

‘creativity’ of Rahner’s Ignatian contribution is exposed in the relatively recent studies byDeclan Marmion 73 and Philip Endean 74 .Endean essentially argues that Rahner interprets the Ignatian concept of ‘indifference’ ordetachment from things as a spiritual faculty and, as a consequence, that the naturalhuman structure of the mind is predisposed to transcend the material 75 . Endean discernsthat Rahner’s primary spiritual idea, reflected strongly in ‘Ignatius speaks to modernJesuits’, is the apophatic, immediate experience of God without object or mediation 76 .Endean believes that this radical, immediate human experience of God is difficult todeduce from Ignatian texts, and that Rahner’s earlier patristic studies significantly shapeand inform his interpretation of ‘Ignatian’ spirituality 77 . Endean uses the concept of‘ecstasy’ found in the writings of patristics Gregory of Nyssa and Evagrius Ponticus, andthe medieval scholar Bonaventure’s concept of the ‘spiritual senses’ to demonstrate thatRahner’s concept—an experience of God that falls short of the ultimate encounter ineternity, the ‘beatific vision’ 78 , but goes beyond ‘an inferential knowledge of God basedon God’s effects’ 79 —is informed by the ideas of these mystical theologians. Endeanbelieves that Rahner has drawn particularly on Evagrius’ idea that individuals in ecstaticstates do not ‘move outside’ themselves and their intellect; rather, God ‘moves into’them 80 . Herbert Vorgrimler’s poignant summary of Rahner’s spirituality has, in light ofEndean’s commentary 81 , a distinctly Evagrian flavour.When a person finds all else removed—when they find themselves in solitude—and discover incomprehensibly that they are deeply and profoundly loved—adiscovery that occurs at the deepest level of their existence and is not mediated by82circumstances or things but is an experience of the soul, flooded by light .73 A spirituality of everyday faith – a theological investigation of the notion of spirituality in Karl Rahner,(Louvain: Peeters Press, 1998).74 Karl Rahner and Ignatian spirituality, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).75 Ibid, 18.76 Ibid, 20.77 Ibid, 21-29.78 The Roman Catholic phrase for the spiritual state of the saints in heaven.79 Ibid, 25.80 Ibid, 23.81 See also Harvey Egan’s commentary on the ‘light spirituality’ of Evagrius, An anthology of Christianmysticism, (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1991),43-48.82 My paraphrase, Understanding Karl Rahner, (London: SCD Press, 1986), 11-12.45