| A key part of the theological accomplishment of Karl Rahner, S.J., is his theory of how human speech can refer to God. This dissertation traces the roots and development of Rahner's theory of religious language.; Rahner sees religious language as Christological, analogical, symbolic, sacramental and truthful. He articulates this understanding through an assimilation of diverse elements: Thomas Aquinas' metaphysics of participation, Kant's critique of traditional metaphysics, Pierre Rousselot's interpretation of the Thomistic concept of intellect, Joseph MarEchal's analysis of judgment, and Rahner's own Christology and theology of grace.; This thesis contends that Rahner's anthropological metaphysics, proceeding from the dual starting-point of question and affirmation, issues in an analogical account of being which is in every essential the same as Thomas' metaphysics of participation, but now interpreted in anthropological terms: the human person is an analogical being. This interpretation of being, which Rahner retains throughout his works, forms the foundation for his account of religious language. Ralmer interprets religious speech, whether dogmatic or poetic, as analogical, because humanity is intrinsically analogical in its knowing and willing.; In addition to this strong Thomistic provenance, I hold that the widest context for Rahner's theory of analogical religious language is his Christology and theology of grace. The ultimate theological explanation for religious speech is the divine will-to-Christ, from which results a world structured by degrees of analogical participation in the divine Esse. This makes created reality a suitable source for predicates about the divine.; I conclude that Rahner's thinking on religious language is divided, since his work includes both a tendency towards a strong account of the relations between experience, reflective thought, and language, as well as an opposing tendency which places less value on language and concept, and is less certain of the analogical unity of the inner and outer words of revelation. Although Rahner maintains that "analogy, properly understood, is the basic structure of Catholic theology," some of his own theologizing---for example, on the topics of mysticism and anonymous faith---undercuts this assertion. |
