Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 82 No. 2, 2012.
Review article
God's Reality and The Person of Jesus Christ in Karl Rahner's Theology
Ivan Antunović
; Faculty of Philosophy of the Society of Jesus, Zagreb, Croatia
Jadranka Ažić
; Faculty of Philosophy of the Society of Jesus, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Well-known Protestant theologian Jürgen Moltmann believes that Karl Rahner is the modern architect of Catholic theology. It is thanks to him that changes and refreshment occurred in theology. His efforts overcame so-called traditional theology and Neo-Scholastic thought about God, which according to Karl-Heinz Weger was appropriate to a certain middle-class of society. Rahner took a step forward in his theological work as he did not distance himself from the Gospel nor did he succumb to the notion of God's proclamation in Jesus Christ to new modern interpretations. In his thoughts of God who revealed himself in Jesus Christ, Rahner bases his presumptions on the receiver of the revelation and his anthropological and epochal experience. He believes that the Church should today be mostly concerned with bringing the people to the fundamental experience of God. In that regard he emphasises that man should realise that he is immersed in the endless mystery of God's closeness. We need to be aware that we are dealing with an absolute God who wishes to present himself to the people in his absolute immediacy, through grace and death. The true reality of Christianity is to be invited to accept, though Jesus Christ, the absolute presence through which the absolute God gives himself to us. The endless and radical depth of God's experience is most evident in Christianity which is granted to us through the grace in Jesus Christ: »From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace!« (John 1:16). Christianity is obliged to permanently pay attention to the experience of God, so that man can discover Him in Himself, to accept and confess Him in His verbal and social objectification.
Keywords
experience; incarnation; history of salvation; God's self-giving and existence; existence of the Logos; immanent Trinity; Trinity in the economy of salvation; God's »self-interpretation«; eternity and time; sacrament; symbol
Hrčak ID:
84384
URI
Publication date:
12.7.2012.
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