1978

Rahner: transcendental christology and the incarnation as the goal of creation

Karl Rahner, a former student of Heidegger, held that each generation must understand anew the truth hidden behind the formulas of orthodoxy. Agreeing with the Chalcedonian Definition, he thought it was too often interpreted in a Monophysite or almost docetic spirit, as if the incarnation diminished the genuine humanity of Jesus; Christian anthropology must be grounded in what is seen in Jesus as true and full humanity. In Foundations of Christian Faith (1978) he builds christology from the question of the "absolute Savior": absolute salvation requires the real presence of God, so Jesus is God incarnate and not a prophet, yet a genuine man whose divine consciousness was transcendental and unreflexive. The incarnation is not merely a response to sin but the very goal of creation: "When God wants to be what is not God, man comes to be."