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

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with authority—both sacred and secular—testing. He experiences formal liturgy andworship as empty and ritualistic and is hurt and disillusioned by the inevitable andarbitrary loss of loved ones through death. Yet, in this context—the business, wordiness,tedium and emotional complexity of an ordinary life—Rahner proclaims his existentialencounter with interior silence, a silence he experiences as abandonment into the lovingarms of the eternal God. Rahner’s life in prayer echoes life as an active contemplative inthe Ignatian tradition.In his summary of Ignatius’ understanding of the relationship between the world andGod, David Lonsdale observes that Ignatius ‘sees all good gifts of creation and salvation“descending from above…as the rays of light descend from the sun, and as the watersflow from their fountains” (Exx 237)’ 76 , and that God ispresent and active at all levels of created reality…‘in the elements giving themexistence, in the plants giving them life, in the animals conferring upon themsensation, in humanity bestowing understanding’ (Exx 235)…If the world andhistory and all that is contained within them are gifts from the hand of God, thenGod is continuously present and engaged in created reality in every dimension oflife and in a variety of different ways.Lonsdale also notes that the images of God’s active presence in the world as giver andongoing creator ‘form the foundation of the Contemplation to Attain Love in the SpiritualExercises’. Retreatants are constantly invited to consider God’s ongoing activity andblessing in their personal history—as well as their broader world—as a basis forthanksgiving and affection towards God. Lonsdale explains that it is in the context ofmeditating on the personal experience of God’s active love in creation that the Ignatianprayer of absolute surrender and commitment finds its true context. ‘Take, Lord, andreceive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will, all that I haveand possess…(Exx 234)’ 77 .76 Eyes to see, ears to hear – an introduction to Ignatian spirituality, (London: Dartman, Longman& Todd,1990), 55-57.77 In ibid.75
Echoes of Ignatius’ Exercises are apparent in the Encounters prayers.I now see clearly that, if there is any path at all on which I can approach You, itmust lead through the very middle of my ordinary daily life. If I should try to fleeto You by any other way I would actually be leaving myself behind…If You havegiven me no single place to which I can flee and be sure of finding You, ifanything I do [including formal prayer and worship] can mean the loss of You,then I must be able to find You in every place, in each and every thing I do.Otherwise I couldn’t find You at all, and this cannot be, since I can’t possiblyexist without You. Thus I must seek You in all things…Your love can save methe love of You, who are the goal and attraction of all things…It is only the loveof You, my Infinite God, which pierces the very heart of all things, at the sametime transcending them all and leaping upward into the endless reaches of YourBeing, catching up all the lost things of this earth and transforming them into ahymn of praise to Your infinity 78 .The mystery of the Encounters text is how it combines experiencing an apophatic,interior immediate experience of God and a full engagement with the spectrum of humanroutines, social transactions and psychological responses to the events and circumstancesof life. Perhaps the point of Rahner’s Encounters meditations is not to resolve thisparadox but to entice the reader to make this mystery their personal experience.ConclusionThe overall impression of the Encounters meditations: a beautiful dance with an invisiblepartner. The internal logic of the resolved dilemmas and questions reflects creativity anddepth, and has an intrinsic beauty that is fetching and engaging—in an aesthetic, ratherthan pragmatic, sense.To experience Encounters as a guide to what it means to be fully human, readers musthave the capacity to discern God’s Spirit in the imagination of the author. If readers cansense only the aesthetic nature of the internal theological logic, if they cannot perceivethat this logic has emerged from a deeper, more primordial experience, then Encountersis merely interesting in a poetic way. If readers are able to sense a liturgical movement inresponse to a rhythm of divine grace, then the logic of the text has profound relevance forall aspects of faith and life. Though Rahner never explicitly says ‘thus says the Lord’, itbecomes obvious as readers progress through the meditations that the words of the author78 Encounters, 48, 50-52.76
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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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As you see, at the top of the carto
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Central to Rahner’s thinking is t
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Kilby notes that in regard to this
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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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