Finding God in a World Come of Age: Karl Rahner and Johann Baptist Metz(Past Light on Present Life: Theology, Ethics, and Spirituality)

This volume directs attention to the teaching of Jesus; it introduces the question of how the imagination has to work in order to retrieve the teaching of Jesus and apply it to actual life in our day. Teachers and preachers are engaged in this work all the time, but upon examination it involves a process that bears reflection. We live in a world that is so different from the world in which Jesus taught that many ask about its practicability relative to our complex everyday lives. The volume turns to three authors who work at this, have thought through present-day theory of interpretation, and respond to basic questions that explain the adjustments that allow us to apply Jesus's teaching to our dilemmas with interpretation that remain faithful to the content that He proposed. Sandra Schneiders turns to modern hermeneutics-the theory of interpretation-and explains what is going on in the human mind that allows us to say that present-day interpretation, while different from that of Jesus because our "worlds" are different, corresponds to what Jesus communicated in the past relative to His world. William Spohn pushes the same idea further to concrete examples of how analogy, sameness, and difference together bind the imagination to Jesus and frees us to see new relevance for Jesus's actual teaching. And Lisa Sowle Cahill takes the spirit of the other two into the social order to show how Jesus's teaching has a real relevance for the highly complex societies in which we live today. The logics of these three authors offer models for what is going on in all of the "Past Light on Present Life" volumes as they represent different historical periods and distinct themes in Western Christian spirituality.

Table of Contents:
I—Introduction to the Lives and Works of Karl Rahner and Johann Baptist Metz 1 II—The Texts 23 Reflections on the Unity of the Loveof Neighbor and the Love of God / Karl Rahner 25 Considerations on the Active Role of the Person in the Sacramental Event / Karl Rahner 49 Transcendental-Idealist or Narrative- Practical Christianity? Theology and Christianity's Contemporary Identity Crisis / Johann Baptist Metz 81 III—Theological Grounding for a Spirituality of Life Engaged with the World 101 Further Reading 121 About the Series 123 About the Editors 129

About the Author :
Roger Haight is emeritus Visiting Professor at Union Theological Seminary. The recipient of the Alumnus of the Year award from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago in 2006, he is a Past President of the Catholic Theological Society of America and a recipient of the John Courtney Murray award for achievement in theology. Alfred Pach III is an Associate Professor of Medical Sciences and Global Health at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and an MDiv in Psychology and Religion from Union Theological Seminary. Amanda Avila Kaminski is an Assistant Professor of Theology at Texas Lutheran University, where she also serves as Director of the program in Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship. She has written extensively in the area of Christian spirituality.

Review :
Reading the series gives the sense of sitting in on an exciting seminar with an excellent teacher.-- "Theological Studies" Past Light on Present Life is a brilliantly dynamic series. It weaves together theological frameworks, ethical implications and spiritual mindsets in interpreting texts of numerous great personages in the history of Christian Spirituality. Importantly, in doing so it responds to searing questions of our current age. The genius of the series lies in the precise choices of the original texts at the heart of each concise volume, which provide the key for such pertinent interpretation. These volumes provide much needed fresh insight for experts in the field, as they also will prove invaluable for undergraduate teachers, graduate students, religious seekers and spiritual directors.---Julia D.E. Prinz on the Past Light on Present Life: Theology, Ethics, and Spirituality series Listening to Christian spirituality carefully and liberatingly for the present is neither simple nor necessarily welcome in pluralistic and secular contexts. This series, intended for respectful existential, secular and pluralistic engagement, promotes a deep conversation about how Christian spiritual heritage matters today. Readers are invited into the art of interpretation with--and beyond--these influential texts and authors, into difficult and urgent questions about how we live well together in a world where no one single vision prevails, but where we help each other clarify what matters most, making a world with room for all spiritual paths promising justice. For the everyday quest to live well together in a world we must equally share, Christian tradition offers spiritual wisdom--and this series offers able guides in recovering that wisdom and suggesting how it can be practiced today.---Tom Beaudoin on the Past Light on Present Life: Theology, Ethics, and Spirituality series