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

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In the chapters on ‘mystery’ and ‘word and sacrament’, insights from Rahner’s morecomplex transcendental theologising contributes additional nuances to these themes.Spiritualities of silence in Encounters with silenceElements of various traditions of Christian spiritualities of silence are apparent withinEncounters with silence. Although Rahner offers only occasional fleeting references tosome of these traditions, the spiritual theology in Encounters clearly reflects a variety ofinfluences and sources.The silence of prayerful powerlessness in the dark nightRahner complains bitterly of his experience of emptiness and disconnection:When I pray, it’s as if my words have disappeared down some deep, dark well,from which no echo ever comes back to reassure me that they have struck theground of Your heart…Why are you so silent? Why do you enjoin me to speakwith You, when You don’t pay any attention to me? Isn’t Your silence a sure signthat You’re not listening? 52Rahner resolves this complaint by concluding that an ‘hour’ will come when he will enter‘the hidden sanctuary of…[his] own being’, andhold ‘myself’, that nameless something in which all my powers and qualities areunited as in their source, and I shall return this nameless thing to You in anoffering of love 53 .Rahner concludes that he is powerless to enact this ‘change’: he may only adopt a postureof ‘patient waiting for You, a silent standing by’even in periods of true prayer, God remains silent.Theologians call Your silence in such a decisive hour the ‘dark night of the soul,’and those who have experienced it are ‘mystics.’ These are the great souls whohave not merely ‘lived through’ this hour of decision, as all… [people] must, buthave been able to watch themselves in the process, to be somehow witnesses of55their own reactions .54in the rhythms of his daily routines;52 Ibid, 19 & 20.53 Ibid, 24.54 Ibid.55 Ibid, 25.69
Rahner does not claim for himself the mystical awareness of the ‘great souls’; he simplyasks God for the grace to continue ‘this awful waiting’: the clearing of the ‘ground of thesoul’ in readiness for the anticipated divine hour of grace.Rahner’s thinking represents a dual spirituality of silence. All his words and activities—including his human attempts to ‘pray’—are expressions of both his powerlessnesstowards God and his faith that such a moment of divine empowerment will come, orperhaps already has. Rahner recognises that words cannot represent the depth of spiritualexpression that is ‘prayer’: the giving of a person’s whole life to God. God’s actionenables prayer on a level deeper than verbal expression or human consciousness.Though the extent to which Rahner is actually using John of the Cross (1542–91) as asource is not clear, the connections are notable; the original ‘dark night’ text stresses aspiritual movement of the soul that ‘has left discursive meditation and entered the state ofproficients, it is God who works in it’ 56 .Furthermore, those entering the dark night should recognise their utter powerlessness tomake an interior connection to God. The appropriate response to the ‘night of the senses’is toliberate themselves from the impediment and fatigue of ideas and thoughts… theymust be content simply with a loving and peaceful attentiveness to God… withoutthe effort, and without the desire to taste and feel Him 57 .The movement of the Spirit in such a dark night is a ‘secret contemplation’ that isexperienced at an unconscious and meta-sensory level: ‘[t]hrough this contemplation,God teaches the soul secretly and instructs it in the perfection of love without its doinganything or understanding how this happens’58 .56 Book I, Chapter nine, ‘The Dark Night’ cited in Egan, H, An anthology of Christian mysticism,(Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1991), 456.57 Book I, Chapter ten, ibid in Egan, 457.58 Book II, Chapter five, ibid.70
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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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The particular angle from which thi
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somewhat superseded by more recent
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Rahner: I have nothing against that
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One brief but notable spiritual inf
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dialectic between these two, has le
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odies of knowledge, history and alt
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superiors, having decided that he w
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High School Week, Rahner began his
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Earlier in this chapter, Rahner’s
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These anecdotes testify that Rahner
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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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