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Review Summary: AN EXISTENTIALIST EXPLICATION |
Date: 2008-09-16 |
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Details: Rahner succeeds in an existentialist explication of God, revelation, and man. He describes God as the transcendental experience of mystery, as the term of the infinite, the indefinable, the ineffable in a language that is elevating and enlightening. Revelation is the unthematic and thematic self-communication of the Divine Mystery to man. With the thematic it is the self-communication to persons' of extraordinary self-expression. Man is person, subject, transcendent being, responsible and free, yet conditioned by and dependent on the world and history.
Guilt occurs when man in his freedom says no to God. Original sin is the situation in which man finds himself in history resulting from previous persons saying no to God. Rahner gives the example of eating a banana that has been obtained by a corporation that systematically exploits indigenous populations.
Rahner sees providence at work in the proliferation of sects. He sees this as enforcing honesty. He believes that problems arising in a non-Christian age will force these sects toward unity.
Overall, I recommend this book because of its grounding in phenomenological and existential philosophy. For convenience I am including the Chapter numbers and their titles.
Chapter I. The Hearer Of The Message
Chapter II. Man In The Presence Of Absolute Mystery
Chapter III. Man As A Being Radically Threatened By Guilt
Chapter IV. Man As The Event Of God's Free And Forgiving Self-Communication
Chapter V. The History Of Salvation And Revelation
Chapter VI. Jesus Christ
Chapter VII. Christianity As Church
Chapter VIII. Remarks On Christian Life
Chapter IX. Eschatology |
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Review Summary: Rahner review |
Date: 2008-02-27 |
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Details: This book by Karl Rahner, especially the center section on Christ, is the best I have read on Christian theology. |
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Review Summary: Difficult exposition of Catholic faith |
Date: 2006-11-20 |
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Details: Karl Rahner is considered one of the leading Catholic theologians of the 20th century.
Rahner is interesting for several reasons, particularly for his strongly apophatic approach to God. This is reflected in this book, where God is considered the 'ultimate mystery' who is above 'all names', obviously echoing Pseudo-Dionysius.
Rahner's style is not the best or the most accessible, and Von Balthasar and Bernard Lonergan are much easier to read. Even Jacques Maritain is somewhat easier to read.
Rahner is not incomprehensible, but the reader will find this work very difficult to read unless they have some background to Rahner's thought, especially his extensive use of terms from existentialist and continental philosophy.
It remains one of his key works though, and needs to be read by any student of Rahner to understand his ideas. |
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Review Summary: Set the controls for the Heart of the Son |
Date: 2005-09-06 |
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Details: 'Foundations of Christian Faith' is a deceptive title for a book which is in fact an overview of the whole field of Rahner's catholic progressive theology and it is no easy read; I gave an Italian version to a doctor friend who gave up reading it after the first 50 pages because 'it was too difficult'! It is however compulsory reading for anyone interested in the perennial conflict within catholicism between a theology inspired by St.Thomas(based on Aristotle) and St.Augustine(based on Plato). The representative of this latter theology is the Swiss theologian Von Balthasar who wrote his magisterial 'The Glory of the Lord' in response to what he saw as Rahner's 'dilution of the concept of Revelation' amongst other things. The current Pope Benedict XVI, a major theologian himself, is a firm supporter of Von Balthasar's theology which makes Rahner somewhat unpopular in Vatican theological circles today. Rahner, in contrast to the entire catholic approach to theology of the past 2000 years does not start his understanding of Christianity by elaborating upon the tenets of revealed faith, but starts from 'below' ie. from mankind as a species which is open to the supernatural in its very essence and then goes on to show how 'faith' fills this need or 'spiritual vacuum'; the point of conflict here is whether faith is inherent in human nature or is an act of grace (a created spiritual reality which is granted to Man but is not part of his natural constitution). Rahner, amongst other things, even opens out to Eastern religious ideas by stating that 'purgatory' might even be worked out over a series of successive reincarnations - something which clearly has the 'traditionalists' tearing their hair out!! A further difficulty, for the traditionalists, is that he tries to make evolution an integral part of an aspect of his understanding of faith - here I think he's on shakier ground. Placing a/any scientific theory as an integral part of theology exposes it to the risk of collapse should the theory prove (over time) to be false or is replaced by another theory (look at what happened with Galileo!!) - anyone interested can read Kuhn's 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'. Rahner's major works are currently out of print - so the 'Foundation' is indispensable reading if anyone wants to come to grips with one of the two 'giants' of modern theology (the other being Von Balthasar).I found this English translation to be excellent and its words have a very strong emotional as well as intellectual impact, which is why I invested in a copy despite having an Italian version. One last thing, Rahner's Jesuit biblical training can clearly be felt. Behind every concept he develops there is always a NT scriptural root, this is not stated explicitly, so be sure you keep the NT firmly in mind when you read him. |
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Review Summary: This is the culmination of Rahner's life |
Date: 2004-09-23 |
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Details: Karl Rahner is confounding to most people who only touch him and veer off looking for a more acceptable theology. If you read the early Rahner, you will have difficulty. If you read Rahner's last tome, you will be treated to the fullness of his spiritual development. William Dych is the best English translator of Rahner, bar none! In "Foundations . . . ," Karl Rahner lets down his guard and reveals to the reader, who he has become in his lifetime. He is no longer speaking about God but rather, is telling the listener who God is. There is still the extensive backgrounding and rambling German sentence structure, but once you understand that this text, like all of Rahner's published works, was written from dictation, you will begin to understand just what is missing from the printed word. Even though Dych translates brilliantly and with great insight, not even he can capture the characteristic vocal inflections that made the rambling sentences concise and clear. The reader must supply the drama of the words, understanding that not a word that was uttered has been left out of print. Thus, Karl Rahner is not to be read so much as to be experienced, and this will take some work. But in this way, the reader will suddenly discover what Karl Rahner, in his persuasive and vastly diverse way is attempting to say. This book is well worth hearing, for those who have ears. |
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out of 14 Reviews
