Karl Rahner: A Neo-Augustinian Thomist

REVIEW ARTICLE KARL RAHNER: A NEG-AUGUSTINIAN THOMIST WITH THE PUBLICATION of his anthology, A Rahner Reader*, Gerald McCool both testifies to the major significance of Rahner's theology within th.e contemporary Church and exemplifies in a special way his mentor's thesis that theology today must be a form of haute vul,garisation.1 Father McCool's Rahner handbook with his careful and clear introductory remarks to each selection is an excellent tool for introducing and overviewing Rahner's thought. Rahner's pervasive influence on the post-conciliar renaissance in Catholic theology is .obvious to all informed observers. The task of extending the influence of this seminal thinker beyond the range of professional scholarship to serve the interests of the non-professional but seriously reflective Christian believer has been advanced by the contribution of Father McCool, who indeed deserves our gratitude for this welcome vulgarisation . Instead of a review of Father McCool's book however, the following pages proffer observations on two major themes of Rahner's theology which seem to me to speak a word of consolation to the anxious spirit of our day. The first is Rahner's theological immanentism -his retrieve of the Christian confession of the universal presence of God. His emphatic elucidation of this theme resonates refreshingly with our contemporary experience of the Deus absconditus and a pluralistic world. The second theme chosen is Rahner's Christology, a theme which further illustrates· Rahner's immanentism with his a priori " construction of the Christ " followed by his "turn to the object" in raising the question of the correspondence between" his Christ" and the Je~us of the Gospels. A word on the title of this article, Rahner: A N ea-Augustinian Thomist. If "transcendental" is the proper designation for his *Gerald A. McCool: A Rahner Reader (N. Y.: Seabury Press, A Crossroad Book, 1975), pb. Pp. xxviii + 881. $6.95. 1 Karl Rahner, " Reflections on Methodology in Theology," Theological Investigations , Vol. XI, trans. by David Bourke (New York: Seabury Press), pp. 68-114. 178 KARL RAHNER: A NEO-AUGUSTINI.A.N THOMIST 179 interpretation of Thomism in his philosophical prolegomena, "NeoAugustinian " may be an apposite substitute for " transcendental " as Rahner moves from his philosophical " turn to the subject " to his theological reflection on the subject informed by grace.2 !MMANENTISM Rahner forthrightly admits that the phenomenon of Catholic Modernism was a provocative stimulus for his understanding of the task of theology in the Roman Catholic Church of the twentieth century.11 Without excessive decrying of the long period of dangerous secession from the spirit of the modern world which characterized official ecclesiastical policy, Rahner turned to meet the challenges of a world formed by the secular movements of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and science. He may even have suspected that this confrontation between Catholicism and modernity was " too late." 4 Indeed, parallel to his efforts toward creative encounter with modernity, Protestant theologians, following Barth's lead, were indicting their own recent history of liberal adaptation to the modern ethos. Schleiermachian liberalism was ceding to a new affirmation of divine transcendence, the whollyotherness of the Christian God with its consequence, the whollyotherness of the Christian Church vis-a-vis the world and its pretences . Rahner was not the first Catholic thinker to sense the truth in the intention underlying the abortive Modernist movement. He had been preceded (among others) by the illustrious philosopher, Maurice Blondel. In fact, Rahner was to complement Blondel's phenomenology of the will with his own metaphysics of mind. If Blonde! had made a case for the thesis that man necessarily " .wills" God, Rahner would in similar fashion argue that man necessarily " knows " God. To situate Rahner's contribution to the theology of the divine immanence, a brief review of the liberal Protestant effort may be helpful. Schleiermacher's greatness rests on the fact that he recognized how cultural exigencies affect the theological task. Inherent in the acceptance of this task is, of ·course, the risk of rendering an adaptative benediction on whatever constitutes the mindset •Cf. Eugene TeSelle, Augustine the Theologian (New York: Herder and Herder,. 1970)' p. 106. 8 Cf. Rabner and J. Ratzinger, Revel,a,tfon and Tradition...