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Abstract
This article explores how Rahner’s work can fit within an Asian theological approach of understanding God. For many Asians, religion is a lived experience and being a Christian is a choice that can be counter-cultural. Christianity is still commonly perceived as a Western religion in many parts of Asia. This may result in a re-thinking of what it means to be an Asian Christian beyond the Western context. This article will offer some thoughts on the Asian approach to theology and then consider aspects of Rahner’s thought that can appeal to Asian sensibilities. Though Rahner comes from a Western context, there is a commonality in his work, which can speak to the Asian lived faith experience and their orientation towards the divine.
Highlights
“Man [as a being is] mystery in his essence, his nature... beings who are referred to the incomprehensible God. This reference, which is our nature, can only be conceived and understood when we allow ourselves freely to be grasped by the incomprehensible.”[46]. Rahner believes that “our whole existence is the acceptance or rejection of the mystery which we are, as we find our poverty referred to the mystery of the fullness.”[47]. In this respect, mystery is not something to be discovered so that it ceases to be a mystery
Theology, despite its claims, are not universal statements of faith and that it can be applied across the board from the West to the East
Stephen Bevans tells us very persuasively, “There is no such thing as ‘theology’; there is only contextual theology: feminist theology, black theology, liberation theology, Filipino theology, Asian-American theology, African theology, and so forth.”[70]. Theology “deals with faith and the object of faith,” “theological statements are statements of faith.”[71]. Faith is a response and perhaps the only reasonable response to the experience of the divine, which in turn leads to responses of belief, obedience, and love in God
Summary
Though Rahner comes from a Western context, there is a commonality in his work, which can speak to the Asian lived faith experience and their orientation towards the divine.
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