In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Glossary Absolute savior (absolute bearer of salvation): the person in whom we have the unambiguous pledge of God's irrevocable commitment to us in self-giving love. Because such a person embodies the offer and acceptance of God's self-gift in an absolutely decisive way and inaugurates the Kingdom, he must be one with God in a union which is unsurpassable and irrevocable. See pp. 11 Iff. Absolute future, God as: in Rahnerian thought this refers to the total future yet to come, a future which is both humanity's achievement and God's gift. '4 God" should be understood inclusively: God-with-humanity-and-world. The redeeming creator will not be finally separated from the redeemed creation. See pp. 163ff. Analogy: the way certain attributes (or predicates) are affirmed of a subject. Analogy involves a resemblance in the significations of a single word when it is used in reference to different subjects, but also allows for differences in meaning dictated by the various subjects. For example, the fundamental dependence of creatures upon God allows for God to be named—for attributes to be predicated of God—from the things which God creates, without at the same time suggesting that one knows how these predicates are realized in God, except to say that in him they are realized more profoundly. Analogical predication is thus distinguished from equivocal predication (where the meanings of the same word are totally different) and from univocal predication (where the meanings remain the same throughout successive predications). See pp. 42ff.; also Foundations, pp. 72f. Anonymous Christianity: the theory that God's grace in Christ is offered to and affects all persons, even non-Christians; the saving love of God which Christians know explicitly reaches non-Christians in an anonymous, hidden, or implicit manner. Rahner argues that true faith can be implicit in loving action, enabled by the grace of Christ and shaped in the likeness of Christ, even though not explicitly aware of Christ as its origin and exemplar. See pp. 102f. 187 188 GLOSSARY Anthropology: the study, derived from both philosophical and theological sources, of human experience, of the totality of the human person or of humanity in its most universal characteristics—as knowing, responsible, historical spirit. See pp. 18, 110. Apocalyptic: from the Greek for ''revealing/uncovering." Biblical scholars limit the word to refer to those Jewish and Christian writings which "reveal" God's plan for history's end. (Examples are Daniel 7-12 and parts of the Book of Revelation.) Rahner, quite differently, is referring to the mentality which claims to be in possession of an actual "preview" of the world's end in a literal, observable sense. See p. 157. A posteriori: that dimension of human experience which designates its character as fundamentally historical, categorical, situated in the flow of events as they follow one upon the other in time. See p. 34. A priori: that dimension of human experience which designates the prior givenness of human transcendence as knowledge and freedom open to the infinite of being, a transcendence which is mediated through the a posteriori or historicity. See p. 34. Autonomy: the condition of belonging to oneself, of being and acting on one's own; for Rahner, human autonomy develops in direct proportion to our dependence on God. See pp. 46f., 56ff. Beatific vision: traditional theological imagery (based on 1 Corinthians 13:12) for the final state of fulfillment of personal creatures through immediate relationship to God. See pp. 67, 160f. Canon of Scripture: the authoritative list of which books comprise the Bible. The Church believes that Sacred Scripture is composed of Israel's inspired books, called the Old Testament by Christians, and a New Testament. Sacred Scripture is the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit who is seen as the principal author of the Bible. See p. 132. Categorical: pertaining to that dimension of human experience which is historically particular and concrete; the specific content of everyday knowledge and decision-making, as distinguished from its transcendental openness to the wholeness of being. See pp. 23f., 123. Causality, divine: the way God influences the existence or nature of another. See pp. 56f. Chalcedon, Council of: ecumenical council of the Church in 451 which responded to the Eutychian heresy and defined that Christ is one person in two natures, which are united unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably . See pp. 109f. Chiliasm: historically, the belief that Christ in person will return and rule on earth during the millennium, or thousand...

Share