Karl Rahner - Biography

Biography

Karl Rahner's parents, Karl and Luise (Trescher) Rahner, had seven children, of which Karl was the fourth. His father was a professor in a local college and his mother had a profound religious personality, which influenced the home atmosphere. Karl attended primary and secondary school in Freiburg, entering the Society of Jesus upon graduation; he began his novitiate in the North German Province of the Jesuits in 1922, four years after his older brother Hugo entered the same Order. Deeply affected by the spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola during the initial phase of his novitiate (1920–24), he concentrated the novitiate's next phase (1924-7) on Catholic scholastic philosophy and the modern German philosophers: he seems to have been particularly interested in Immanuel Kant and two contemporary Thomists, the Belgian Jesuit Joseph Maréchal and the French Jesuit Pierre Rousselot, who were to influence Rahner's understanding of Thomas Aquinas in his later writings.

During his Jesuit training, Rahner did some practical work by teaching Latin to novices at Feldkirch (1927–29), then beginning his theological studies at the Jesuit theologate in Valkenburg, South Holland in 1929. This allowed him to develop a thorough understanding of patristic theology, also developing interests in spiritual theology, mysticism and the history of piety. Rahner was ordained priest on 26 July 1932, and then began his last year of required theological training, which was devoted to prayer and gaining pastoral experience before starting formal ministry. Rahner completed this training at St. Andrä, Austria in 1933 and spent the required "silent year" of the Tertiate discipline in St. Andrea in Austria’s Lavanttal Valley.

Because Rahner's superiors wished him to teach philosophy at Pullach, he returned home to Freiburg in 1934 to study for the doctorate in philosophy, delving more deeply into the philosophy of Kant and Maréchal, while at the same time attending seminars by Martin Heidegger. His philosophy dissertation Geist im Welt, an interpretation of Thomas Aquinas's epistemology influenced by the transcendental Thomism of Joseph Maréchal and the existentialism of Martin Heidegger, was ultimately rejected by his mentor Martin Honecker, allegedly for its bias on Heidegger's philosphy and not sufficiently expressing the Catholic neo-scholastic tradition. In 1936 Rahner was sent to Innsbruck to continue his theological studies and there he completed his habilitationsschrift Soon after he was appointed a Privatdozent (lecturer) in the faculty of theology of the University of Innsbruck in July, 1937. In 1939 the Nazis took over the University and Rahner, while staying in Austria, was invited to Vienna to work in the Pastoral Institute, where he both taught and became active in pastoral work until 1949. He then returned to the theology faculty at Innsbruck and taught on a variety of topics later to become the essays published in Schriften zur Theologie (Theological Investigations): the collection is not a systematic presentation of Rahner's views, but, rather, a diverse series of essays on theological matters characterized by his probing, questioning search for truth.

In 1962, with no prior warning, Rahner's superiors in the Jesuit Order told him that he was under Rome's pre-censorship, which meant that he could not publish or lecture without advance permission. His outspoken, frank approach to faith issues and his creative, challenging stance on theological foundations had gotten him into trouble with the Vatican authorities, who naturally tended to be more traditionally minded, especially on the issue of the "unchangeable" teachings of the Church. The basic objections of the Roman authorities focused mainly on Rahner's views on the eucharist and Mariology, however the practical import of the pre-censorship decision was voided in November 1962 when, without any objection, John XXIII appointed Rahner a peritus (expert advisor) to the Second Vatican Council: Rahner had complete access to the Council and numerous opportunities to share his thought with the participants. Rahner's influence at Vatican II was thus widespread, and he was subsequently chosen as one of seven theologians who would develop Lumen Gentium, the dogmatic explication of the doctrine of the Church. The Council's receptiveness towards other religious traditions may be linked to Rahner's notions of the renovation of the church, God's universal salvific revelation and his desire to support and encourage the ecumenical movement.

During the Council, Rahner accepted the Chair for Christianity and the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Munich and taught there from 1964 to 1967. Subsequently, and after producing important lectures to be published in his Grundkars des Glaubens (Foundations of Christian Faith), he was appointed to a chair in dogmatic theology at the Catholic theological faculty of the University of Münster, where he stayed until his retirement in 1971. Rahner then moved to Munich and in 1981 to Innsbruck, where he remained for the next 13 years as an active writer and lecturer, also continuing his active pastoral ministry. He published several volumes (23 total in English) of collected essays for the Schriften zur Theologie (Theological Investigations), expanded the Kleines theologisches Wörterbuch (Theological Dictionary), co-authored other texts such as Unity of the Churches: An Actual Possibility with Heinrich Fries, and in 1976 he completed the long-promised systematic work, Foundations of Christian Faith.

Rahner died on 30 March 1984 at the age of 80.