Date of Award
6-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2024
Degree Name
Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL)
Director
Christopher M. Hadley
Abstract
Karl Rahner envisions that devout Christians of the future must be mystics, having a genuine experience of God’s presence in their particular context. This thesis aims to recover the role of mystics in the life of the Church, specifically in Pope Francis' challenge for the Catholic Church to embrace an identity of being a synodal Church. To be a synodal Church necessitates being a listening Church. Rahner promotes a form of mysticism where the pathway to be in union with God is one’s engagement in the world. For him, mystics witness how it is to be receptive to grace, that is, to God’s self-communication. God has bestowed on human nature the capacity to listen to God’s word or silence. Mystics are models of listening, for they are ready to listen to God’s free and unlimited self-communication in the world through all people. The way Rahner’s mystic listens is reflected in the Synod on Synodality initiated by Pope Francis through its composition, set-up, and method. In exploring Rahner’s mysticism, this thesis adopts a historical approach to see the Christian mystical tradition, highlighting mystical writers like Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Teresa of Avila. In exploring how Rahner’s mystic listens, this work delves into its philosophical, theological, and Ignatian foundations. The thesis also examines the novelty of this synod and its foundations on Scriptures, the Eastern Orthodox Church's understanding of synodality, and the ecclesiology of Vatican II.
Recommended Citation
Villariza, Theodbriel Repizo Jr, "How Does a Mystic Listen? Reimagining Listening through Karl Rahner’s Notion of a Mystic in Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality" (2024). Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations. 141.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/jst_dissertations/141
