488 - Theological Investigations, Vol. 18 & Theological Investigations, Vol. 19 & The Love of Jesus and the Love of Neighbor

Theological Investigations, Vol. 18
304 pp. $19.50.

Theological Investigations, Vol. 19
288 pp. $19.50.

The Love of Jesus and the Love of Neighbor
104 pp. $9.95 ($5.95 paper).
By Karl Rahner
New York, Crossroad/Continuum, 1983.

These two volumes of the Theological Investigations are translations of portions of Rahner's Schriften zur Theologie, volumes 13 and l4. They bring to completion the twenty English volumes. Volume 18 treats theological hermeneutics, the theology of God and Christology, the

490 - Theological Investigations, Vol. 18 & Theological Investigations, Vol. 19 & The Love of Jesus and the Love of Neighbor

experience of the Spirit, and issues relating to grace and the world. Familiar Rahnerian themes emerge in the first part on theological lessons to be learned from the history of dogma (a history inclusive of error as well as abiding truth), on pseudo-problems in ecumenical discussion (mistaken notions of the papacy, original sin, Mariology), the Catholic magisterium and theology (Theology both precedes magisterial teaching and follows it in developing new questions.), on bad arguments in moral theology (Good arguments reach to the really metaphysical level, that which is transcendentally necessary according to the nature of the human person as knowing and free, and entail reflection on practice.). Part two treats questions of human meaning in relation to the absolute mystery of God (for my part, the best essay in the collection), the unity and trinity of God, the possibility of prayer as dialogue with God, the meaning of belief in Jesus Christ today, and the meaning of discipleship. Part three explores the experience of transcendence, of the Holy Spirit, develops the notion of faith as courage, and offers a new meditation on the meaning of Christian dying. The final section considers the question of world development as the necessary consequence of justification or grace, law and righteousness (the transcendence of law in the full Christian life), and the importance of non-Christian religions for salvation (their genuine grace-filled elements). Throughout these essays, Rahner returns to the suggestion that dogmatic teaching of the past was always formulated with a necessary but dispensable "amalgam" of theological or philosophical construction that can be rethought in the light of a new historical situation.

Volume 19 offers Rahner's reflections on his important book, Foundations of Christian Faith, the indirect origins of the church from the death and resurrection of Jesus, the meaning of priesthood, new pastoral ministries, the spirituality of the priest, the theology of worship, the possibilities of basic communities, purgatory, suffering, Mary and the image of woman, Mary's virginity, and a long and intriguing essay on angels! Both volumes are rich and powerful, showing Rahner's focus on the central questions of Christian faith--God, Christ, faith, the church-as well as questions arising from contemporary experience. The questions are cast within Rahner's characteristic framework of thought, with the self-communication of God in Christ--grace--as the center from which everything else derives. Just as the notion of the "persons" in the Trinity and original "sin" were rethought in the earlier volume, Rahner subjects Mariology to a fundamental reformulation in the perspective of a Christology "from below," in order to purify it of pious exaggerations. "Mary must also be seen as a woman of the people, as poor, as a learner…. She is to be seen, not as a heavenly being, but as a human person, as active and suffering for herself and others, as learning in the midst of many uncertainties, as accepting her function in salvation history in faith, hope, and love, and by this very fact, as model and mother of believers."

The final little book on love of Jesus and love of neighbor presents a

492 - Theological Investigations, Vol. 18 & Theological Investigations, Vol. 19 & The Love of Jesus and the Love of Neighbor

dense but lucid christological argument in which Rahner's theological anthropology is central. Love of Jesus is analogous to the unconditional love that human persons can bear toward one another, even beyond death, in the communion of saints. Love of God, as the total destiny of the person, is integrated with love of neighbor christologically. Through the real love of Jesus as a living person, not an idea, love of neighbor is one with the love of God. A genuine "communion of brothers and sisters" is actualized in the parish or local community and in the political responsibility that marks Christian community today.

Karl Rahner died at the age of eighty in March of l984. These three recently translated books are proud testimony to the systematic clarity of thought, provocative insight, and religious eloquence that are his legacy to the Catholic and ecumenical church. The first two are somewhat more technical. The third offers the central themes of Rahner's theology in a form accessible to a wide audience of theological readers.

Anne Carr
University of Chicago Divinity School
Chicago, Illinois