Paul writes – Karl Rahner appears from time-to-time in this blog. While I’m not expert my intuition is that Rahner has much to say in response to the deeper realities underlying the contemporary cliché, “I’m spiritual but not religious”.
For those wanting a good overview of Rahner I recommend this one and Karl Rahner: Life in the Spirit by John J. O’Donnell (although this latter title is hard to find and very expensive. Hopefully, if interested in pursuing it, you’ll have access to a good theological college or seminary library).
Below are a few excerpts that grabbed my attention in a paper by Declan Marmion and titled “Theology, Spirituality, and the Role of Experience in Karl Rahner,” Louvain Studies, 29, 2004, 49-76.
A core element that Karl Rahner S.J. takes from Ignatius of Loyola is the tendency “...to transpose questions of God into the transcending adventure of human freedom rather than speaking of faith as primarily an ascent of truth... the Ignatian highlighting of spiritual experience as a path towards Christian commitment underlies Rahner’s proposal to substitute old-style apologetics with a more personal journey of initiation and discovery called “mystagogy”. This means helping people to accept and recognise an immediate closeness of God within the ordinary and extraordinary drama of their own life...”
“...In the life story of Ignatius it is striking that his advice to his companions, faced with the challenges of the Reformation, was to avoid theological confrontation and instead to deepen the pastoral agenda through experiences of spiritual renewal...”
Rahner, “...found in Ignatius a classic text that encouraged his key pastoral intuition: that the nourishment of faith in a more complex culture needs a radically different approach to the discovery of God. In what he called the diaspora situation [which the church finds itself in], socio-cultural belonging and belief gives way to an equally socio-cultural non-belonging and non-belief. In terms of the parable of the sower, the roots are shallow and do not last the onslaught of confusing new worlds. Increasingly aware that explicit atheism was becoming rare and religious indifference widespread, Rahner pondered the pastoral issue of how to ground faith for the secularised settings of post-war Europe in particular. And he answers this cultural challenge in frequently Ignatian terms. Just as Ignatius in his time ... preferred to give priority to spiritual renewal as an answer to the Reformation rather than to engage in militant disputes, so Rahner shifts the agenda of faith from issues of truth to issues of freedom, from doctrinal content to spiritual experience, and more specifically to a mystagogic initiation for people today into an awareness of grace at work in their own humanity...”
“...The contemporary focus on spiritual experience ... can easily fall into both the “despotism of the sacred” and the “narcissism of the self”, whereas what is needed is a genuinely personalised religion that unites affectivity, intelligence and social responsibility in the light of faith...”
Indeed, for Rahner, “the main blockage to faith in the postmodern situation comes [more] from fragmented life-styles than from ideas. The rhythms of our hyperactivity can keep us adrift on the surfaces of ourselves and unable to reach deeper levels of desire... And it was to remedy such a blockage that Rahner gave so much emphasis to the formation of ordinary mystics.
“... [Rahner’s] everyday mystic is someone whom we can imaging saying: “In the adventure of my humanity, I have sensed the guidance of God’s mystery, close to me and creative in me. I have come to discover God as an artist’s presence in the adventure of my life. In the flow of my daily choices, I have recognised the healing spur of Christ, eroding my ego into generosity in hidden ways. In the silence of my heart I know something of the artistry of the Spirit, shaping my life towards a love beyond my imagining...”
I'm new to Rahner but am very interested in Ignatian spirituality so am finding him a rich source of challenge and inspiration. I find myself very much in harmony with his thoughts. For a good introduction to his work try the SPCK Introduction to Karl Rahner by Karen Kilby
Posted by: Dot | Thursday, 04 June 2009 at 08:38 AM