School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses
Date of Award
Spring 5-6-2024
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Theology (Th.M)
Department
School of Theology and Seminary
First Advisor
Michael Rubbelke, PhD
Second Advisor
Kristin Colberg, PhD
Subject Categories
Religion
Abstract
This thesis aims to explore the Ignatian influence that Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan share as a way of comparing the two figures and, consequently, articulating a transcendental theological anthropology that expresses the insights of both and complements each with the other. What emerges from an investigation of the Ignatian roots of Rahner and Lonergan is an awareness of two distinct categories within human experience, an inward dimension wherein psychological and spiritual movements are discerned and an outward dimension where the terms of those movements are worked out—what the Christian tradition has often termed “contemplation” and “action.” For Ignatius, Rahner, and Lonergan, God is to be found in and through both. The ultimate aim, again, is to demonstrate that, as a function of their common Ignatian heritage, Rahner and Lonergan share a similar account of the human person, both with respect to the relation of the person to themselves and in relation to the world around them.
To that end, this thesis aims to do three things: to explain and describe some constitutive elements and features of Ignatian spirituality; to indicate the influence of that spirituality on the work of Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan; and to utilize that shared horizon as a lens for comparison of the two to each other and the articulation of an Ignatian theological anthropology of contemplation and action.
As Lonergan noted that Rahner, via Harvey Egan, helped him to understand, the core of Ignatian spirituality is an examination of the interior states of one’s conscious “intentions, actions, and operations” such that, in discerning the movements experienced within, the person might act in light of what they have discerned and, thereby, live out the person that God intends them to be.
Copyright Statement
This thesis may be made available for electronic access in current and future electronic storage databases at Saint John’s University Alcuin Library, Collegeville, Minnesota.
Recommended Citation
Widdicombe, Henry O., "Finding God in All Things: Contemplation and Action in Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan" (2024). School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses. 1936.
https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/sot_papers/1936
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