Karl Rahner

Karl Rahner, S.J.'s, interpretation and expansion of Catholic theology influenced the Second Vatican Council and is considered essential to a modern understanding of Catholic faith. Rahner's theology is also rejected by many dogmatic Catholics for his theory concerning the "Anonymous Christian" -- non-believers who may attain salvation through the grace of God and their earthly works. I have never been comfortable with the idea that moral, spiritual people who live good lives will be denied heaven. Nor, however, had I been able to square that idea with the gospel teachings that the way to heaven is through Jesus alone. When I studied Rahner in high school and college philosophy, it suddenly made sense.

Here are some of his thoughts:

Anonymous Christianity means that a person lives in the grace of God and attains salvation outside of explicitly constituted Christianity... Let us say, a Buddhist monk... who, because he follows his conscience, attains salvation and lives in the grace of God; of him I must say that he is an anonymous Christian; if not, I would have to presuppose that there is a genuine path to salvation that really attains that goal, but that simply has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. But I cannot do that. And so, if I hold if everyone depends upon Jesus Christ for salvation, and if at the same time I hold that many live in the world who have not expressly recognized Jesus Christ, then there remains in my opinion nothing else but to take up this postulate of an anonymous Christianity.

In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable we eventually learn that here, in this life, all symphonies remain unfinished.

How often I have found that we grow to maturity not by doing what we like, but by doing what we should. How true it is that not every 'should' is a compulsion, and not every 'like' is a high morality and true freedom.

Grace can and does have a history.

In death the relationship we have with the world is not abolished, but is rather for the first time completed.