Rahner on everday mysticism







Rahner writes about walking, sleeping, sitting down, working, eating, and even 
about laughter.13 His comments range from reflections to searing questions. When writing about 
sitting down he says,

 “Do we have the courage, the discipline, and the freedom of heart to be 
quiet, to sit down? Do we become immediately bored when we have to sit down quietly and, 
while driving or travelling, throw ourselves into constant activity because we cannot endure 
ourselves, the quiet and the silence? Do we always have to be on the run because we are running 
away from ourselves?”


 In the words of Harvey Egan: 

Rahner’s theology of the mysticism of everyday life challenges everyone to look more 
closely at what is actually going on in the depths of their daily lives. What is implicit, 
hidden, anonymous, repressed, or bursting forth from the center of all we do?

 To Rahner, there is nothing profane about the depths of ordinary life. Whenever there is a radical self-surrender, an absolute yielding of everything, a surrender to the mystery that 
embraces all life – there is the Spirit of the crucified and risen Christ, the mysticism of 
everyday life.15 




From [PDF] 

Thoughts on the Experience of God in the Theology of Karl Rahner ...

ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/lumenetvita/article/download/.../1907
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
by M Steinmetz - 2012

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