Discuss and compare the notion of starting point of theology in Thomas Aquinas and Karl Rahner.

-

Discuss and compare the notion of starting point of theology in Thomas Aquinas and Karl Rahner.
Theology for Rahner is an intellectual account of the idea of Christianity and Christian’s existence. Rahner makes a mutual integration of theology and philosophy. this he does by emphasizing on the need to understand what it means to be human and wht it means to be a Christian.
o   Theology is the intellectual labour at the service of Christian faith.
Hence he focuses on the totality of the Christian existence. Theology involves thinking, loving truth, suffering (passion) for it.  Thus, the first thing to do in theology is to know your audience; man who is the hearer of the message; man knowing himself, knowing what existence is.
Rahner moves from anthro-centric to theo-centric. Man is a transcendental being open to the infinite horizon of reality.  Every human person has a transcendental capacity for God. Within such transcendence man recognized himself as being a self-conscious being and as a subject who is responsible and free. Man has a freedom of giving choosing to know God or not. As transcendental being, man has infinite desire for the infinite and a capacity for God. This leads him to encounter with God. At this point man experiences the Christian message of salvation. And the question of salvation cannot be answered with reference to history of man’s experience. This makes us able to reflect upon the concrete whole of the human self-realization of a Christian. Man’s knowledge of himself will lead him to God.
Through this, man can make an intellectual account of the idea of Christianity. This is theology. Hence, every theology, according to Rahner, arises out of the secular anthropology and self-interpretation of man.
Philosophy is the interpretation of human experience; theology is the Christian interpretation of human experience.
Comparing Aquinas and Rahner
Rahner presents his notion and the starting point of theology with his anthropology, which proceeds to theology. Aquinas presents the starting point of with theology (revelation) and proceeds to anthropology.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SUMMARY OF PROVIDENTISSIMUS DEUS, ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE LEO XIII ON THE STUDY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.

-
SUMMARY OF PROVIDENTISSIMUS DEUS, ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE LEO XIII ON THE STUDY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.      God has elevated man, freed him of guilt and ruin, restored him to his initial dignity and has made known to him the mystery of his divinity.      He revealed himself through the inspiration of the holyspirit to man. This supernatural revelation, the church believe, is contained in both written tradition and written books which is called sacred and canonical. God himself is the author of the sacred book, he composed the book; the words of the book are his words.      Priests are encouraged to read this sacred book, meditate over it, ponder on it and explain it to the people. The apostolic office also enjoins them to help in making this sacred book reach the Christians and also to defend it against the attack of the heretics.      The holy spirit himself testifies that all the scripture i...
Read more

summary and appraisal of chapters one, two and three of the book The African Origin of Greek Philosophy: An Exercise in Afrocentrism, by Innocent C. Onyewuenyi.

-
Introduction Can Africans philosophize? Is there such a thing as African philosophy? What contribution has Africans made on the world’s civilization and on the discipline of philosophy? These and a plethora of questions are seeking answers in today’s modern world. Africa is being conceived by the world as savages, primitive, her people as those that reside in the Dark Continent who are intellectually inferior. Thus, Africans have not contributed anything to the discipline of philosophy. Hence, this work by Innocent Onyewuenyi aims at answering these questions and at reinstating the truth that philosophy has its origin in the Egyptian Mystery System. In view of this, it is our aim in this paper to summarize and appraise chapters one, two and three of the book The African Origin of Greek Philosophy: An Exercise in Afrocentrism, by Innocent C. Onyewuenyi. To achieve this, we shall begin with a summary of the three chapters followed by an appraisal. Furthermore, we shall present ...
Read more

THE LAST THREE WAYS TO PROVES GOD'S EXISTENCE BY THOMAS AQUINAS

-
THE LAST THREE WAYS TO PROVES GOD'S EXISTENCE BY THOMAS AQUINAS FROM POSSIBILITY AND NECESSITY ITS ARGUEMENT In nature, we find things that are possible to be and not to be, that come from being and go out of being as contingent beings. Imagine every being is a contingent being, for each contingent being, there come a time it is not in existence, which makes it impossible for these to always be in existence. There could have been a time when nothing existed. At that time there would have been nothing to bring the currently existing contingent beings into existence. So therefore, nothing would be in existence now. We have reached a common sense result from assuming that every being is a contingent being. It implies that not every being is a contingent being, some being exists of its own necessity, and does not receive its existence from another being but rather causes them. This people term it as Supreme Being, God. ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN       ...
Read more