Karl Rahner's theology of freedom in a postcolonial context

This dissertation is a critical and constructive interpretation of Karl Rahner's theology of freedom in the light of postcolonial theory. The thesis contends that deepening and intensifying the categorical and historical moments in Rahner's theology of freedom has much relevance for a postcolonial theological project. The method takes the form of a conversation that results in a braiding of theological and theoretical insights. To this end, the constructive proposal for Rahner's theology of freedom in the postcolonial context is presented in a tripartite division of the transcendental-existential, existential-ethical and mystical-political to underscore its categorical aspects. The first part of this division dialogues with Homi Bhabha's theory of hybridity of identity in which subtle themes of transcendence can nurture a theological imagination. Here the “hearer of the Word” in Rahner, together with the idea of the Supernatural Existential emphasizes the cultural and historical context of the colonial encounter with Christianity in India. The second part of the tripartite division is exemplified in the ethical agenda of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, whose call for one-on-one-ethical-relation in love is compared and contrasted with the idea of the Fundamental Option. Here, Rahner's program for the “doer of the Word” is thoroughly radicalized with the inclusion of the embodied lover of people whose caress births mysterious spaces of connection. Finally, the mystical-political idea of freedom, illustrated in Rahner as Indifferent Freedom is critiqued and reinterpreted as Ahimsa or, non-violence. In this chapter, the greatest contrast is to be seen with regard to Rahner and a postcolonial agenda, especially in the mystical-political ideas of M. K. Gandhi. “Being in union with the Word,” the central notion undergirding the idea of Indifferent Freedom is actualized in the mystical-ethical practice of Ahimsa. In intensifying the historical, social and political moments in Rahner's theology, the dissertation contributes to the urgent need to conceptualize subjectivity, ethics and love of God in relation to justice and peace. Catholic theology that emphasizes the communal, sacramental and incarnational theology is therefore both relevant and useful.