Karl Rahner ( Freiburg , 5 as March as 1904 – Innsbruck , 5 as March as 1904 ). German theologian, Austrian national. Ordained a Jesuit priest in 1922, he received his doctorate in philosophy with a thesis on Spirit in the world ( 1939 ), which was intended to revitalize, in contact with Heidegger’s thought , traditional metaphysics. Subsequently, his thought was extended to the entire theological field (christology, ecclesiology , sacraments, ecumenism, political action, religious life, spirituality, anonymous Christianity).
He taught, with international projection, dogmatic theology and philosophy of religion in Innsbruck, Vienna , Munich and Münster . He was appointed consulting theologian to the Second Vatican Council and a member of the International Theological Commission.
Among his numerous works it is worth noting Listener of the Word (1945), Writings of Theology (1954-1975) and Fundamental Course on Faith (1977).
The economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity, and the immanent Trinity is the economic Trinity.
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 Studies
- 1.1 Known historians
- 2 Theology
- 3 Thoughts
- 4 Death
- 1 Studies
- 2 books
- 3 Source
Biographical synthesis
He was one of the most important Catholic theologians of the 20th century. He was appointed consulting theologian to the Second Vatican Council and a member of the International Theological Commission.
He was an honorary doctor of several European and American universities, including those of Strasbourg , Leuven, and New Haven . It is precisely the combination of pastoral activity and academic theological study one of Rahner’s most outstanding characteristics.
His Foundations of the Christian Faith (Grundkurs des Glaubens) , written towards the end of his life, is his most developed and systematic work, most of which was published in the form of theological essays.
Studies
He joined the company of Jesus in 1922, like his brother Hugo . In 1932 he was ordained a priest and four years later he obtained his doctorate in Theology at the University of Innsbruck, to which, with some parentheses, he would remain linked until his death. Jesuit in 1922, he obtained his doctorate in philosophy with a thesis on Spirit in the world (1939), which was intended to revitalize, in contact with Heidegger’s thought , traditional metaphysics.
Karl Rahner Studies
The philosophical sources of Rahner’s theology include Thomas Aquinas , read from the perspective of contemporary continental philosophy. Rahner received classes from Heidegger at the University of Freiburg.
During his doctorate studies in Fríburg he studied the works of Joseph Marichal and Emmanuel Kant , under the direction of Martin Honecker . But her scholastic thesis on Saint Thomas, steeped in the ideas of Honecker (existentialist), was rejected by the examiners who considered her not very faithful to the saint’s thought.
Once a professor, he taught Dogmatic Theology from 1937 at the University of Innsbruck. In 1938, after the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany , the consequent dissolution of the Jesuit college and the closure of the Faculty of Theology, Rahner was expelled from Tyrol .
Until his return to the University of Innsbruck in 1948, he worked at the University of Vienna and later, between 1945 and 1948, at the Jesuit University in Pullach, near Munich. On his return to Innsbruek he teaches Dogmatics and Dogma History for 15 years. The following stages of his life as a teacher lead him to Munich and Muenster, where he retired in 1971 for health reasons.
Known historians
Rahner had worked alongside Yves Congar , Henri de Lubac and Marie-Dominique Chenu , theologians associated with an emerging school of thought called Nouvelle Théologie , the elements of which had been criticized in the encyclical Humani Generis of Pope Pius XII.
Theology
The completeness of human existence occurs upon receiving the divine gift of his being, fully attainable only through the beatific vision of the end times, but present in the past as grace. The basis of Rahner’s theology is that all human beings have a latent consciousness of God in any experience of limitation of knowledge or freedom as finite subjects. Since such experience is necessary, since it constitutes the “condition of possibility” of any knowledge or freedom as such, Rahner uses Kant’s language to describe this experience as “transcendental experience”. For Rahner, the central doctrine of Christianity is grace.
It is a technical term that describes the central message of the gospel: God has communicated himself. The presence of the gift of God, persistent and infallible in the life of Christ, only impeded by the errors of the depraved and idolatrous interpretations of this event, is the central point of the doctrine of grace. Grace, according to Rahner, is a constitutive element of both the objective reality of revelation (the proclaimed Word) and the subjective principle of Listening (with the Spirit). For Rahner, the central doctrine of Christianity is grace.
It is a technical term that describes the central message of the gospel: God has communicated himself. The presence of the gift of God, persistent and infallible in the life of Christ, only impeded by the errors of the depraved and idolatrous interpretations of this event, is the central point of the doctrine of grace. Grace, according to Rahner, is a constitutive element of both the objective reality of revelation (the proclaimed Word) and the subjective principle of Listening (with the Spirit).
Thoughts
Subsequently, his thought was extended to the entire theological field (christology, ecclesiology, sacraments, ecumenism, political action, religious life, spirituality, anonymous Christianity).
With international projection, he taught dogmatic theology and philosophy of religion in Innsbruck, Vienna, Munich and Münster. He was appointed a consulting theologian to the Second Vatican Council and a member of the International Theological Commission.In a festive event held at the University of Innsbruck on the occasion of his 80th birthday, just over three weeks before his death, Rahner described himself as:
- “Ordinary Catholic, priest and Jesuit”.
- “For me, belonging to the Church is an essential part of my relationship of love, faith and hope.”
- “The quackery about why I stay in the Church makes my stomach turn.”
Death
Karl Rahner, one of the most prominent theologians of this century, whose influence on the guidelines emanating from the Second Vatican Council is considered decisive, died on Friday, in a clinic in Innsbruck, of heart failure. Rahner had celebrated his 80th birthday on March 5. His death was made public by the Jesuit father Josef Mullner, rector of the School of the Society of Jesus in Innsbruck, where Rahner had lived since his retirement as a professor of Dogmatics.
