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by Allison R.

Jesus once asked his disciples who they said that he was, which I believe was also a question about who they, the disciples, were.  They could not know who he was until they had some idea who they were.  The Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor says that she often asks catechumens and students to describe how they think Jesus could be both fully human and fully divine at the same time.  What they usually describe, she says, is a sort of divine laminating process.  Jesus’ divinity is snugly encased under a layer of human flesh and blood.  It almost never occurs to people, Taylor says, that to be fully one is to be fully the other.

This is very much in line with Karl Rahner’s theology of who Christ is.  In general, we speak of either Christology “from below” or “from above.”  Ascending Christology is one that starts with the historical Jesus, and descending Christology starts with the church’s dogma.  It is easy enough to choose one or the other, depending on, among other things, our political feelings and opinions about the church.  In fact, Rahner would probably say that it is too easy.  Without an understanding of Christ as both fully human and fully divine, and not in the sense of that laminating process that Taylor describes, Christology would be almost meaningless.

It seems counterintuitive to say that the more human Christ was, the more divine he was, but that is indeed what Rahner says.  Rahner was so deeply a theologian of the everyday world that this idea, Christ as fully divine and fully human, must have some important bearing on how we live out our lives.  What is it?  They key seems to lie in Rahner’s ideas about freedom, and about authenticity. (more…)

by Allison R.

Not long ago, Caravaggio’s painting of the Supper at Emmaus was on display at the Art Institute.  It is, at least to me, one of the most beautiful paintings in the world, because of the great truth in it.  The disciples are reacting in astonishment to the risen Jesus as Jesus lifts his hand to bless the bread and the wine, while an innkeeper looks on in bewilderment.  Jesus is looking down, and smiling a little, but very sadly.  This is not surprising, since the next line of this story in Luke’s Gospel is one of the saddest things I have ever read.  It says, “Their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished from their sight.”

The writer of the Gospel strings these three movements breathlessly into one sentence, or at least most of the English translations do.  Their eyes were opened, they knew him, and he vanished.  As I once heard an old gentleman at my church observe with disgust about the preacher of a very short sermon, “He was over before he got started.”

But why?  Why does he always seem to leave just when we start to recognize him?  Why, in another story, wouldn’t he let Mary Magdalene touch him or cling to him just when she seemed to need it the most?  Why does it so often seem to be true that he is gone just when we need him the most?  If he gets lost in our daily lives at times, isn’t it because he sometimes seems all too easy to lose? (more…)

by Ryan Hoffman

Introduction

Karl Rahner was without doubt one of the most influential contemporary theologians in Catholicism. Karen Kilby writes of Rahner:

In the 1950s he was on the margins, his orthodoxy questioned, his work censored; in the 1960s he suddenly was at the centre of things, a theological expert at the Second Vatican Council, and, in almost all accounts but his own, one of the shaping influences upon it (p. xv).[1]

The set of essays contained here seeks to illuminate these ‘shaping influences’ by treating Rahner’s theology of the human person and Jesus Christ. It will not be an exhaustive treatment of such topics; I acknowledge more could be said about Rahner’s theology, the connections he makes and the conclusions he draws. I know, too, that the implications of his work have been immense, informing ecclesiology, Trinity, Grace, and beyond. Even so, as a student of Rahner, I will surface my own syntheses of these key Rahner constructs and discuss their relevance today. In doing so, following Rahner’s lead, I will use predominately masculine language. I intend no disrespect to women; I use his language for clarity’s sake. Rahner, if he were writing today, would likely utilize more inclusive language, a move I support.

Rahner in Review: Christian Anthropology

Karl Rahner’s approach to the question of what it means to be human is foundational in his theology. How are we to understand human potential? Where, and in what form, does the divine dialogue with humanity? It is no accident that Rahner starts with the human and traces other theological constructs (e.g., God) from this starting point. Understanding Rahner’s Christian Anthropology is essential in theologizing about his concepts of God, Christ, Trinity, and more. As such, I start here too. (more…)

Water Tower