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

Lord, to pray my whole life long without hearing an answer, isn’t that too much toask? You see how I run away from You time and time again, to speak with…[people] who give me an answer…You see how much I need to be answered. Andyet, my prayers never receive a word of reply 16 .Like the majority of the psalms, the questions raised by Rahner in Encounters find theirresolution in applying theological reasoning to faith .Why are You so silent? Why do you enjoin me to speak with You, when Youdon’t pay any attention to me? Isn’t Your silence a sure sign that You’re notlistening? Or do You really listen quite attentively, do You perhaps listen mywhole life long, until I have told You everything, until I have spoken out myentire self to You? 17Characteristic of each of the meditations is the pattern of honest questioning, complaintand wondering that leads ultimately to a resolution emerging from a creative logicalreflection on the nature and character of divinity—and not to a pat religious answer.A significant component of the capacity of Encounters to draw in readers/listeners is thevivid, artistic imagery Rahner uses to describe the human condition. The followingnotable example, using the metaphor of a goods warehouse to describe the unceasingaccumulation of the trivial data of everyday life, is found in ‘God of my daily routine’.Many years ago, when I was a schoolboy distinguished by the name‘philosopher,’ I learned that the soul is somehow everything. O God, how themeaning of that lofty-sounding phrase has changed! How different it sounds to menow, when my soul has become a huge warehouse where day after day the trucksunload their crates without any plan or discrimination, to be piled helter-skelter inevery available corner and cranny, until it is crammed full from top to bottomwith the trite, the commonplace, the insignificant, the routine 18 .Carefully constructed, descriptive phrases permeate the meditations, enablingreaders/listeners to discern that their most familiar experiences have been penetrated,mirrored and framed within the author’s prayer.16 K. Rahner, Encounters with silence, 19-20.17 Ibid, 20.18 Ibid, 46.58