Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Theology Faculty Research and Publications Theology, Department of 1-1-2010 Interpreting Rahner's Metaphoric Logic Robert Masson Marquette University,
[email protected] Published version. Theological Studies, Vol. 71, No. 2 (2010): 380-409. Permalink. © 2010 Theological Studies, Inc. Used with permission. Theological Studies 71 (2010) INTERPRETING RAHNER'S METAPHORIC LOGIC ROBERT MASSON Recent provocative reinterpretations of Karl Rahner's theology illustrate the hermeneutical challenge of retrieving his achievement for a new era. The spectrum of positions is exemplified by Karen Kilby, Patrick Burke, and Philip Endean. The essay proposes an alternative interpretive scheme attentive to Rahner's metaphoric logic. NEW GENERATION OF SCHOLARS is raising fundamental questions Aabout the balance, coherence, and foundations of Rahner's theology. They are bringing new questions and theological contexts to his thought and bringing Rahner's thought to bear on questions that had not been at the center of his attention—if on his horizon at all. While many of his former students and disciples have been content to explain and interpret Rahner in his own terms, this new generation seeks explanatory schemes that are not at all or much less dependent on his own conceptual framework and technical vocabulary. In critically engaging Rahner's texts, they take apparent discontinuities seriously while eschewing both overly generous harmonizations and unsympathetic caricatures. Their readings of Rahner illustrate the hermeneutical challenge of retrieving his achievement for a new theological era. The spectrum of reinterpretations is exemplified by Karen Kilby, Patrick Burke, and Philip Endean.1 Others could be cited, but these three illustrate ROBERT MASSON received his Ph.D.