Heart of Rahner: The Theological Implications of Andrew Tallon's Theory of Triune Consciousness

235 Pages·2009·3.04 MB·English

by  Heidi Ann Russell

THE HEART OF RAHNER
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HEidi ANN RussEll
THE HEART OF RAHNER
THE THEOlOgicAl implicATiONs OF ANdREw
TAllON’s THEORy OF TRiuNE cONsciOusNEss
marquette stuDies in theoLogy
no. 64
anDrew taLLon, series eDitor
© 2009 Marquette University Press
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201-3141
All rights reserved.
www.marquette.edu/mupress/
founded 1916
Library of Congress CataLoging-in-PubLiCation Data
Russell, Heidi Ann, 1973-
The heart of Rahner : the theological implications of Andrew Tallon’s theory of
triune consciousness / Heidi Russell.
p. cm. — (Marquette studies in theology ; no. 64)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87462-741-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Rahner, Karl, 1904-1984. 2. Tallon, Andrew, 1934- 3. Experience (Religion)
4. Emotions—Religious aspects—Catholic Church. 5. Consciousness—Religious
aspects—Catholic Church. I. Title.
BR110.R87 2009
230’.2092—dc22
2009009470

front Cover by Darin weisenseL
Photo of Dr. russeLL by sue weisenseL
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
TAblE OF cONTENTs
Preface .......................................................................................................7
Dedication ..............................................................................................11
Acknowledgements ................................................................................12
1. Faculty Psychology: The Concept and the Critique ......................13
Faculty Psychology ..............................................................................16
The Philosophical Critique ................................................................21
The Scientific Critique .......................................................................25
2. Andrew Tallon’s Theory of Triune Consciousness ........................35
Phenomenological Background .........................................................36
Triune Consciousness.........................................................................51
Connaturality ......................................................................................59
Quasi-intentionality ...........................................................................64
Tallon on Rahner ................................................................................65
3. Karl Rahner’s Theology of the Mystical Experience of God ........71
The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius ..............................................74
The Three Modes of Election ............................................................75
Consolation with Cause .....................................................................82
Consolation without Previous Cause ...............................................83
Certitude in the Experience of Consolation without Cause ..........89
Attunement in the Second Mode of Election ..................................91
The Spiritual Senses ...........................................................................93
The Structure of the Spiritual Senses in Bonaventure ...................95
Spiritual Touch as Ecstasy or Mystical Union .................................97
The Question of Experience ............................................................105
4. Karl Rahner’s Theology of the Everyday Experience of God .....109
Hearer of the Word ..........................................................................110
The Horizon of Human Transcendence as Holy Mystery ..........123
Faith and Human Consciousness ...................................................136
5. Karl Rahner’s Theology of Grace ...................................................141
Prevenient, Operative, and Subsequent Connaturality ................141
6 the heart of rahner
The Theology of Grace .....................................................................143
The Anonymous Christian ..............................................................153
Response to Objections....................................................................161
6. Affectivity: The Heart of Rahner’s Anthropology .......................167
The Meaning of Love in Rahner’s Anthropology ..........................169
Love as Self-Actualization ...............................................................169
Affection as Embodied and Spiritual ..............................................175
Love Elevated by Grace ....................................................................179
Intersubjectivity as Primary Analogue for
Relationship with God .................................................................181
Unity of Spirit and Matter ...............................................................186
Heart as the Symbol of the Human Person ..................................191
7. Further Implications ........................................................................197
Thomas Sheehan ...............................................................................200
George Lindbeck ...............................................................................203
Karen Kilby .......................................................................................208
Patrick Burke .....................................................................................214
Conclusion .........................................................................................216
Bibliography .........................................................................................219
Index ......................................................................................................229
pREFAcE
The word “heart” in Rahner’s theology highlights both the cen-
tral role of affectivity in his work as well his understanding
of the heart as the symbol of the whole person, emphasizing
the unity of the human person as embodied spirit. Andrew Tallon’s
understanding of triune consciousness, which highlights the unity
and distinction of the affective, cognitive, and volitive intentionalities
of consciousness, corrects ambiguities in Rahner’s theological under-
standing of the human person and the person’s experience of God that
arise from Rahner’s reliance on the dyadic (cognitive/volitive) catego-
ries of traditional faculty psychology. While I presume the insights
Rahner has gained through his use of the transcendental method and
the turn to the human subject, the approach to Rahner’s theology in
this work will be more phenomenological. I also presume Rahner’s
axiom that theology is anthropology and anthropology is theology;
in other words, our understanding of the human person and human
experience is related to the way we understand God and vice versa.
Accepting Rahner’s axiom invites the consideration of what effect
understanding the human person in terms of triune consciousness
has on Rahner’s own theology. Focusing on Rahner’s theology of the
experience of God and his theology of grace, a revision of his the-
ology through this alternative model of the human person remains
consistent with his central insights, but offers a phenomenologically
and scientifically more credible interpretation of his theology than the
traditional viewpoint of faculty psychology.
Chapter one explicates the background concept of faculty psychol-
ogy and the critiques of this approach to the human person found
in contemporary science and philosophy. Chapter two then turns to
Andrew Tallon’s intentionality analysis of consciousness as an alterna-
tive interpretation of the human person, specifically focusing on his
understanding of the role of affective intentionality and his use of the
concept of connaturality to describe affective intentionality. My inten-
tion is to explore the theological implications of Tallon’s philosophical
position rather than to argue or advance the philosophical theses in
themselves. This chapter concludes with Tallon’s own observations on
the role of affectivity in Rahner’s theology.
8 the heart of rahner
Using Tallon’s model of triune consciousness as an interpretive lens
to investigate aspects of Rahner’s theology, chapter three uses triune
consciousness as an explanatory principle for mystical or ‘non-concep-
tual’ experiences of God that St. Ignatius calls consolation without
previous cause and that Rahner describes in The Dynamic Element in
the Church as an experience of the horizon in which the conceptual
object of one’s consciousness becomes transparent or disappears. This
chapter then extends the application of Tallon’s theory of triune con-
sciousness to Rahner’s interpretation of the spiritual senses to dem-
onstrate that the concept of triune consciousness offers an advantage
in clarifying Rahner’s contention that experience of God is beyond
cognitive comprehension.
Chapter four considers the experience of God in everyday life or the
non-mystical experience of God. Rahner’s theology names the horizon
of our questioning (in the cognitive sense) God, but also describes the
horizon in terms of our experiences of freedom and love, specifically
in the context of our intersubjectivity. This chapter interprets our con-
comitant (though non-thematic) experience of the horizon in terms of
triune consciousness to offer a phenomenological explanation of why
we name this horizon as personal God. This chapter contends that,
given Rahner’s own conviction that we can never ‘know’ the horizon in
a categorial, cognitive sense, triune consciousness better explains the
sense of attunement or befittingness one has to the idea of a personal
God.
Chapter five contemplates the implications of a theory of triune
consciousness for Rahner’s theology of grace. This chapter explains
grace and the supernatural existential through Tallon’s theory of affec-
tive attunement and connaturality. For Tallon, the concept of connatu-
rality is defined as having a second nature that gives one an affinity
with or to another being or object. This chapter articulates Rahner’s
concept of the supernatural existential through the concept of preve-
nient connaturality (i.e., connaturality that is the effect of our being
loved by God) and our response to God’s offer of self-communication
as operative connaturality (connaturality as the cause of our love of
God). Finally chapter five explores the ways in which the theory of
triune consciousness contributes to the debate over Rahner’s concept
of the ‘anonymous Christian’ by clarifying the distinctive aspects of an
affective experience and the cognitive interpretation of that affective
experience.
PrefaCe 9
Chapter six investigates the role of affectivity in Rahner’s anthro-
pology and the unity of the embodied and spiritual nature of the hu-
man person, and thus human consciousness. Rahner’s theology of the
love of God and the love of neighbor is analyzed as an experience of
affectivity in which intersubjectivity as a subject-subject relationship
becomes the primary analogue for one’s relationship to God. Rahner’s
theology of symbol as it is applied to the body and to the heart offers
an opportunity to explore the implications of the physical aspect of
affectivity and the role of the heart as the symbolic mediator of the
physical affective response and the affective intentionality in human
consciousness while emphasizing the unity of spirit and matter.
Chapter seven concludes that Rahner’s own inability to make ex-
plicit the distinct role of affectivity as well as the unity of conscious-
ness within the framework of triune consciousness necessarily means
his interpreters have not read him in this manner. Therefore this more
phenomenological reading of Rahner’s theology is brought into dia-
logue with some recent commentaries on Rahner’s work. The works of
Thomas Sheehan, George Lindbeck, Karen Kilby, and Patrick Burke
are briefly explored in this final section.