Internal Difficulties in the Theology of Karl Rahner

Abstract

AbstractCriticism of the theology of Karl Rahner is most often made from bases external to his thought. When the ever greater ascendancy of transcendentality in Rahner’s thought is juxtaposed with areas of his theology concretely differentiated by symbol and history, however, internal difficulties arise that jeopardize the coherence and integrality of his work. Following an analysis of the predominant role of transcendentality in Rahner, three particular areas of such internal difficulty are considered: (1) the irreconcilability of the reciprocally constitutive dynamics of the Realsymbol with the fundamentally unidirectional operation of transcendental grace, (2) the disjunction entailed in the experience of grace as conscious yet unreflexive knowledge (Erkenntnis), and (3) the incommensurability of an historically developmental self‐communication (Selbstmitteilung) of the economic Trinity with an a priori, always already self‐communication (Selbstmitteilung) of God in grace. By rendering transcendentality ever surpassing in its reach, Rahner ultimately exposes other corners of his theology to the point of provoking internal disjunction that his transcendental overextension leaves him unable to resolve.