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

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humanity as a spiritual guide, enabling others to experience an ‘awakening’ to themystical and relational possibilities of their graced existence. In Rahner’s mind, Ignatianspirituality also provides the means and process by which the church itself may receiveconstant direction and renewal: opening itself in humility to its ‘dynamic element’, theactive presence and voice of the Holy Spirit, engaging directly with the lives of allmembers—not just those who constitute the official teaching office.Rahner’s spirituality of silence can be expressed in Ignatian terms as follows.1. Christianity in the first instance emerges from a posture of solitude and silent selfcontemplationin the light of God’s revelation in Jesus.Individuals willing to ‘put up with themselves in loneliness and perhaps inabandonment, therefore in silence’ 95 achieve an initial awareness of God and acapacity to participate more fully in God’s life. Silent self-reflection, in light of therevelations of the historical Jesus and essential Christian doctrine, opens the doorwayto a mystical participation in the actual life of Jesus through whom individuals findand embrace their true selves and begin to learn the meaning of prayer.If we consider what we are like in our ordinary lives, in our secret moments,we shall see that we are all desire and longing, ever on the lookout forsomething new and different, that we are hungry and thirsty for the goodthings of life, one cry for a fulfilment we do not yet possess…we arepractically one vast chaos of appetites…We need someone to straighten outthe tangled desires that we are, to infuse them with tranquillity and an innerlight and joy…That is why we must ask in Jesus’ name; which does notmean that we invoke him verbally and then desire whatever our turbulent,divided heart or our appetite, our wretched mania for anything andeverything happens to hanker for. No, asking in Jesus name means enteringinto him, living by him, being one with him in love and faith. If he is in usin faith, in love, in grace, in his Spirit, and then our petition [life cry] arisesfrom the centre of our being, which is himself, and if all our petition anddesire is gathered up and fused in him and his Spirit, then the Father hears96us .In the silent place—the place of Ignatian meditation, contemplation and colloquy—aperson may become present to the God who is already closer to them than they are tothemselves. The church, through the creation of a silent, sacred opportunity and the95 Imhof and Biallowons, eds., Karl Rahner in dialogue, 178.96 Rahner, K. The Great Church Year, Raffelt, A. ed. Egan, H. trans. ed. (New York: Crossroad, 1993),200-201.49
provision of appropriate spiritual material, enables the opening of the well of livingwater within those who allow themselves to be led into this silent place. In moretechnical Rahnerian terms, the silence of the Exercises leads the individual to an‘anthropocentirc-christocentric-mystagogical’ metamorphis: an existential movementinto ‘loving mystery’ in which a connection is made between the ‘inner Christdirectednessof the person and the…Jesus of history and the cosmos’, which in turnleads to an ‘actualisation of the freedom to live authentically’ 97 .2. The ministry of pastoral care and the work of extending the influence of Christ’ssalvation involves the spiritual leadership of the church in a rhythm of connectionbetween proclamation and contemplation.The spirituality of Ignatius and the Exercises emphasises the importance of unique,individual responses to the mystical encounter. In recent history, spiritual directionhas shifted from a focus on ‘preached’ content to what occurs for the individual inmeditative/prayerful silence. This does not lead to a loss of Christian content inspiritual formation: with a focus on the gospels, the Exercises are profoundly biblicalin content. They are designed to draw the exercitant into a direct engagement withliterature based on the words and actions of Jesus. Spiritual Exercises emerged fromRahner’s desire to offer exercitants an appropriate theological framework fromwhich to engage more fruitfully in the true experience of the Exercises—one only‘knowable’ existentially through prayer 98 . These emphases highlight the need for arhythm and balance between proclamation and contemplation.For Rahner, this balance calls for spiritual leaders who become at least as skilled inthe art of refraining from giving advice as they are at giving it. The focus of theirverbal contribution is spiritual direction: they avoid ‘a moralistic manipulation of theperson’ 99 , believing instead that, in silent reflection, God the Holy Spirit will work inthe unique anthropological/transcendent connection of human and divine spirit.97 From Rahner’s introduction to Egan, The Spiritual Exercises and the Ignatian Mystical Horizon, Xiv –Xv.98 Rahner, Spiritual Exercises, 8-9.99 See Egan, The Spiritual Exercises and the Ignatian Mystical Horizon, Xv.50
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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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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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