Epilogue: Brief Creedal Statements

In this brief section, Rahner concludes the Foundations of Christian Faith with three brief creedal statements. He prefaces them, first of all, with an explanation of the need for them. Brief creeds concentrate the faith into a formula that highlights the most important dimensions and their significance for contemporary readers. Next, Rahner explains the relation of his brief formulas to official symbols of the faith, like the Apostles' Creed. It cannot be superseded but new formulas, reflecting different situations in the world, are permissible and legitimate. After that, Rahner enumerates the requirements for writing a brief creedal statement. It ought to express the fundamentals of Christian faith as grounded in the history of Jesus Christ. Finally, Rahner presents three brief formulas of faith. The first, a "theological" statement, emphasizes that the human experience of transcendence has its term or goal in the Father-God who invites and sustains the possibility of transcendence.

Scanned photo printed after Rahner's "Foreword" in William J. Kelly, Editor, Theology and Discovery: Essays in Honor of Karl Rahner, S.J. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Marquette University Press, 1980.

The second and "anthropological" creed connects the love of human beings for one another with love for God, whose relationship with humanity reached its climax in Jesus Christ. The third, "future-oriented" creed portrays Christian faith as open to an absolute future. God draws humanity toward this future by sharing with it the Holy Spirit. After presenting these brief creeds, Rahner reflects on the Christian belief in the Trinity, the three divine "persons" in whom the one God is accomplishing the salvation of all.

Introduction

(P. 448). Could it be, asks Rahner, that the foregoing nine chapters have obscured the "idea" of Christianity toward which he has striven? He intends this epilogue, he says, for those readers who have found the scope of the earlier material daunting, the length of the presentatons challenging, the development of the thought difficult - yes, and even for those readers who wish that he had clarified his insights more. The epilogue, he says, aims "to try again and in another way to bring the whole of Christianity into view" (448).

The Need for Brief Creedal Statements of Christian Faith

(X.A, p. 448). Two basic motives spur the effort to express Christian faith in brief creeds. One motive is to sharpen the focus of faith. Brief creeds enable believers to distinguish between the heart of faith and secondary aspects it. They help a believer take responsibility for faith.

The second basic motive for brief creedal statements is to make the faith intelligible to non-Christians. In a situation where many people disbelieve in Christ, short creeds can indicate the essence of Christianity, an essence that will differ considerably from mistaken but popular notions of it.

The Multiplicity of Possible Creedal Statements

(X.B, p. 449). Although Rahner concedes that the Apostles' Creed cannot be superseded by a new, universal creed, nevertheless different basic creeds are necessary. The differences among the various situations in the world where the gospel is preached requires various creeds. There can be, within the Christian church, no single theology.

The pluralism of theologies can no longer be integrated completely into a single theology, as they perhaps were in the homogeneous world of Hellenistic, Roman, and western culture. Pluralism within theology is legitimate and necessary. Since no profession of faith exists without an implicit theology, theological pluralism requires a pluralism of creeds.

To be sure, the church has power to make definitive doctrinal decisions, and it will continue to do so, especially in the form of negative anathemas. But this does not mean that only the official representatives of the Church can fashion creedal statements. Such statements can and should arise, adapted to the differences among nations, cultures, and histories.

Requirements for a Basic Creedal Statement

(X.C., p. 452). Every creedal statement should "contain what is of fundamental importance and what provides a basic starting point for reaching the whole of the faith" (452). Short creedal statements will express - as indeed every really Christian creed must express - faith in the historical Jesus as Lord and saviour. To be sure, Rahner's second, "anthropological" creed does not mention Jesus Christ. Nevertheless Rahner insists that even this creed has a "Christological implication."

A Brief Theological Creed

(X.(i), p. 454). This 67-word creed (56 words long in the German), emphasizes that human transcendence has its "term" or goal in God. God communicates the divine self to humanity in "forgiving love." Such love shows itself in God's ever-renewed invitation to transcend what we were - by making free and responsible choices - in accord with our conscience and innate abilities. God's forgiving love reached its climax in Jesus Christ. In him the divine self-communication became manifest as irreversible and victorious.

Explanatory Remarks

(X.(i).A, p. 454). The brief "theological" creed has three main statements. The first is about the identity of God. Thomas Aquinas, perhaps over-confident in his medieval understanding about what God is, affirmed that God exists. Rahner's creed, by contrast, indicates how we understand what the word "God" really means. We understand God as the goal of our everyday acts of knowledge and freedom.

God gives the divine self, secondly, to human beings as their fulfillment. In traditional terms, this means two things. First, God offers the divine self historically in the Logos or Son, that is, in Jesus Christ. Second, God sends the divine self "existentielly" in the Holy Spirit as the grace of justification. The self-communication of God in the two missions of Son and Spirit expresses the Trinity.

The third statement of the theological creed is that God's self-communication reaches its climax in Jesus of Nazareth. In Jesus, God not only offers the divine self. God also shows that, in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, this divine gift of self has been accepted in the human race. Jesus Christ is the "firstborn among many" (Rom. 8:29), the first human being to have been completely united with God. He enjoyed a hypostatic union with the Father. This is the starting point for a theology of the church as the sacrament of God's work in Christ.

A Brief Anthropological Creed

X.(ii), p. 456. This creed expresses the faith that, when human beings risk themselves in love for one another, they discover themselves and grasp the meaning of God. In terms of this creed, God is "the horizon, the guarantor, and the depth" of human love. Such love is possible only where God gives the divine self to human beings. Human love, made possible interpersonally and socially by God, is the church's ground and essence.

Explanatory Remarks

X.(ii).A, p. 456. The second anthropological creed connotes the theology of the first creed. First of all, it states that love for one's neighbor contains an experience of God, at least implicitly. Human beings transcend themselves in interpersonal relationships, wherein one's neighbor becomes the concrete occasion for a free and responsible response. As we transcend what we were by responding to our neighbors, we encounter God - explicitly or implicitly - as the mysterious source of transcendence.

The second statement of the creed is that God creates the possibility of interpersonal love. By offering the divine self, first in existentiell terms as the justifying grace of the Holy Spirit, and second in historical terms through the incarnation of the Logos, God has established a relationship with humanity. God makes human love possible.

The church is the unity of God's self-gift as existentiell communication and historical achievement. God offers the divine self in Spirit, truth and love. Humanity accepts the offer and manifests it as community, history, and law. The two are not identical but united.

To read the remainder of this text, please order the printed version of The Foundations of Karl Rahner by Mark F. Fischer, published in 2005 by Crossroad Publishing (ISBN 0824523423).