About Karl Rahner - the Theologian - Research Paper Example

Karl Rahner - the Theologian Introduction Karl Rahner was the fourth born to Luise (Trescher) and Karl Rahner on March 5, 1904, in Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany. While his father was a local college professor, his mother was a devoted Christian and the religious influence that she had in their home gave rise to a pious and open atmosphere. Karl schooled in Freiburg, which appears to have had a liberal minded as well as tolerant reputation. When he graduated, Karl entered the Society of Jesus and on April 20, 1922, he started his novitiate in the Jesuits’ North German Province – four years earlier, Hugo, his elder brother, had gone into the same Order. In the first phase of the novitiate, Ignatius of Loyola’s spirituality, which would later on pervade his entire theological program, deeply affected Karl." In the next phase of the novitiate, Karl was introduced to contemporary German philosophers as well as the Catholic scholastic philosophy1. In the early years of Rahner’s Jesuit formation, Ignatian spirituality greatly influenced him. Two contemporary Thomists namely Pierre Rousselot and Joseph Marechal as well as Immanuel Kant were of particular interest to Rahner. Pierre Rousselot and Joseph Marechal later influenced his understanding of Thomas Aquinas. They, especially Marechal, also deeply influenced his theological and philosophical work. Marechal was renowned for his study on Thomism and Kant, specifically for employing the transcendental method of Kant to Thomistic epistemology2. From the year 1927 to 1929, Rahner taught Latin to the Feldkirch novices because Jesuit training required them to embark on practical work. He then went to the Jesuit theologate in Holland where he started his theological studies. This enabled him to develop a painstaking patristic theology grasp. The history of piety, mysticism as well as spiritual theology also interested him much. Rahner was ordained as a priest in the year 1932, and then started his final year of obligatory theological instruction, dedicated to gaining pastoral experience as well as to prayer before beginning formal ministry. In 1933, he finished this instruction at St. Andra, Austria. He then went through the ‘silent year’ of the Tertiate in the Lavanttal Valley of St. Andrea in Austria3. One of the most significant theological ideas in Karl’s system is Self-Communication of the Absolute Mystery. His transcendental theology is founded on the conviction that the openness of humans to transcendence is based on the pre-apprehension of the never-ending reality or the transcendent God. He therefore finds it vital to warn his readers against confusing God’s transcendence with human transcendence. According to Rahner, God is the ‘holy’ or ‘absolute’ mystery. He argues that God, as absolute mystery, is ‘impenetrable and incomprehensible’. Nevertheless, people can relate to and know God to the extent that God, the creator and producer of non-divine mortals by way of ‘externalizing and giving’ God-self, permits them to know and relate to Him. It is through God’s self-communication that God gives God-self. In addition, he asserts that in this self-communication and self-bestowal, God not only becomes giver but he also becomes gift, and above all the real source of people’s own capacity to receive Him as gift4. Through allowing distance from mortals, God permits them to go back to the transcendent self and to reach out to the transcendence of God. This is known as the ‘transcendental experience,’ another major phrase in Karl’s system. It is called so for the reason that it forms the likelihood of experience, and for the reason that it transcends humans’ categorical experiences as well as historicity5. The second idea in Karl’s system is the notion of Grace within the Depth of Existence. To Karl, this is the first facet of God’s self communication. His point of departure in his theological system is human beings’ analysis or ‘the depth of existence’. Rahner links ‘the depth of existence’ to the concept of grace since human beings experience a circle of guilt and forgiveness internally. The reason as to why it is circular is that whenever people disobey God in their freedom, they at the same time come to the realization that God is offering loving forgiveness and that He is not judgmental. Therefore, God calls them to say ‘yes’ to Him. For Karl, the menace of sin is actually a ‘permanent existential’ which human beings can by no means get rid of in their single, history of time. At the same time, within each ‘no’ is contained the ‘yes’ in the sense that being the basis for the likelihood of every self-assertion, the ‘yes’ is always there, even in the ‘no.’ Karl reinterprets the idea of original sin in this context and explains that it is known as ‘original sin’ because throughout history, humans have established guilt. According to him, sin points to the reality that guilt is universal as well as ineffaceable - sin is not transmitted biologically through Adam and Eve. This truth is obvious because others people’s guilt in addition to the entire wrongdoing history co-determine everybody. Karl’s statement concerning grace as self-communication of God in the profundity of human existence gains its significance in this context6. Karl’s divine grace opinion is made possible since people have the congeniality for accepting it. He refers to this as the ‘supernatural existential.’ He asserts that the self-communication of God as offer is a necessary condition that makes possible its acceptance. To Karl, the end and aim of the grace of God is that people receive beatific vision (God’s final vision), an implication of an ontological correlation between creatures and God7. Rahner also gives a description of Jesus the Christ as the Word of God enfleshed in a human nature, and thus as an individual to be always considered in relationship with the fundamentally spiritual structure of humanity in general and in accordance with all human subjectivity dynamics in its historical embodiment. According to Rahner, the transcendent God become present in Christ and also the presence of God in the world, inspired by that presence, points to life’s meaning for all creatures of God become His son’s brothers and sisters. Additionally, Jesus the Christ reveals God’s infinite dignity that He has bequeathed upon humanity, positioned as they are in a communion with the incarnate son of God whose own destiny is intertwined with that of all humanity8. Conclusion Apparently, Karl Rahner was the most influential and the greatest contributor to the contemporary theology development.  Through his notebooks, theological part of his lasting appeal has to do with his skill of reflecting on various issues in spirituality and dictionaries, articles, and books, Karl made major contributions to all areas of theology. He also left a legacy of being the Second Vatican Council’s greatest theological expert. To a certain extent, his influential position is as a result of his knack of putting philosophy and theology into dialogue. Additionally, his anthropological departure point is a credible starting point for today’s theology, particularly in the modern-postmodern clash over the self nature context. Although many people support Karl’s theology and philosophy, a good number of today’s theologians do not agree with his theological thoughts, referring to his epistemology as idealistic. In my view, the difference between these modern theologians’ thought and that of Karl lies in the interpretation and not evaluation of his ideas. References Kilby, Karen. 2004. Karl Rahner: Theology and Philosophy. London: Psychology Press, p56-64. Rahner, Karl. 1993. Content of Faith: The Best of Karl Rahner Theological Writings. New York: Crossroad. Rahner, Karl & Kelly, Geffrey B. 1992. Karl Rahner: Theologian of the Graced Search for Meaning. The Making of Modern Theology. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, p184-186. Vorgrimler, Herbert. 1986. Understanding Karl Rahner: An Introduction to His Life and Thought. New York: Crossroad. p.51 Wesley, Wildman, 1994. Karl Rahner (1904-1984) (accessed July 30 2011). Read More