Karl Rahner has been perhaps the single most influential Catholic theologian of the 20th century. He has served the Church in numerous ways, but he has also maintained his integrity and acumen in theological writings that are both inspired and inspiring in their beauty.

Rahner's theology is a very complicated one, yet he presents it in a beautiful, poetic and devotional way. ~The Content of Faith~ is a collection of some of his most important writings from a long career, and is thus broken up into shorter segments that are easily digestible. This is not a systematic theology. Even the layperson with little interest in theology can sit down and read one of these pieces and be inspired by the beauty of Rahner's vision of God.

I am not a Catholic, yet I appreciate Rahner tremendously and would heartily recommend this book to anyone. There are indeed some pretty heavy essays in here, but don't get bogged down by those - there is plenty here for everyone.

This book is probably the best in the series of books by Karl Rahner. Not only does it sum up the theology of the Roman Catholic Church, but it also sums up the works of Rahner himself. With chapters about Jesus, God, Mary, Christology, Extestentialism, and Angels, it is truly a must for any theological buff.

For those concerned about the intellectual mediation of contemporary Catholic faith, the way its meaning can be brought authentically into contemporary thought, this intelligent and probing book provides a rich account of the proximate background, especially Karl Rahner's theology, and then presents three case studies of major theologians and master teachers: Johann Baptist Metz from Germany, Gustavo Gutierrez from Peru, and David Tracy from the United States. The author gives balanced, lucid accounts of each theology and rich descriptions of the institutional and historical situation of each thinker. By viewing each intellectual as situated in a particular context and generation and then tracing the way the context and period shape, in each case, the way immediate foundational questions are raised and responded to, Martinez invites readers--not to become anybody's disciples--but to undertake the analogous task of foundational reflection in their own settings. Whatever the starting points of this inquiry are (postwar Germany, postcolonial Latin America, postmodern America), the author shows how each theologian moves ineluctably into questions about the meaning and reality of the mystery of God that seem to lure him on and gather up all his interests and desires. An important study for educated Catholics and others interested in serious contemporary theology, it reminds us that the true study of all "theology" is what it is we mean when we say "God."

A faithful mystic, in fellowship with the desert fathers:
It is not strange that a Catholic utters these prayers of the noia (heart of thinking) in his ever continuos metanoia. In this moving work Karl Rahner expresses in modern language the daily utterance of the mystic abbas and ammas of the Church.
In his book: The Spirit in the Church (Seabury,1979); he appropriates:
'The testimony of the mystics': "they experience grace, the direct presence of God, and union with Him in the Spirit, in the sacred night, or in a blessed illumination, in a void silence filled with God."
Blessed are you Evagrius Ponticus, you preserved Macarius' arrow prayer, and the fellowship of unceasing prayer of the desert fathers in the Praktikos and the Chapters on Prayer (Cisterian publ,1981)

God of my life:
When I abandon myself in love, then You are my very life, ... The farther Your infinity is removed from my nothingness, the greater is the challenge to my love.

God of my Lord Jesus Christ:
Grant, O infinite God, that I may ever cling fast to Jesus Christ, my Lord. ....... But I have still one more request. Make my heart like that of Your Son.!

God of my prayer:
How can a man hope to speak with You? .......How can I pray with love, when the prayer of love is the absolute surrender of the heart from its deepest roots,...?

God of knowledge:
Truly my God, mere knowledge is nothing. .....how can we approach the heart of all things, the true heart of reality? Not by knowledge alone, but by the full flower of knowledge, love.

God of Law:
But, Lord, what of the commandments imposed upon us by men, issued in your name?.......The burden about which I was complaining in the stillness of my heart is mainly our burden, the burden of Your priests,.......set upon our own shoulders.

Enjoy the above quotations:
Read this book, before you pray, even if you do not pray, since you will discover you are in a continuos prayer, with the whole universe even if not aware of it. (Ps.19:1-4)

This book offers a clear and easy overall synopsis of Rahner's theology. It is an excellent first text for a newcomer to Rahner, before delving into his works which can be obscure.

This book contains meditations on the Seven Last Words, Reflections & Litanies on the Agony in the Garden and a more general reflection on the life of Christ. They are based firmly in the Scripture and experience - not highly theological as you might assume based on the author.

I would rank this among the top three Lenten books.

Karl Rahner is one of the 20th century's most powerful and insightful Christian theologians who understood and spoke to the modern Christian. Never in all my years of reading and study have I encountered a book that understands what it is to live and, more importantly, to pray in the modern world. This is not a "how to" book. It is a book of prayer, about prayer.

My objection is the translation. Bruce Gillette has chosen to translate the German "mensch" into "man" rather than "people" (it really means "mankind") and to use the masculine pronoun "he". There is no reason for this; Rahner would certainly be more careful were he writing today and using inclusive language would not have altered the meaning in the slightest. Furthermore, the translator tends to use sentence fragments which might make sense in the original German but often stand as "orphans" without clear relationship to the preceding or following sentence. While I thank Liturgical Press for publishing this book, I suggest greater editorial care. Notwithstanding, ignore the translation defects and read this book.

Each chapter in this work provides enough material for reflection to fill a month - and, perhaps, that is the way to enjoy it fully. Father Rahner's sermons on prayer, especially deep and poignant because they were originally delivered to Germans suffering the pain and deprivation following the second world war, are exquisitely beautiful. He writes movingly of how God strips aways our false ways, how the Holy Spirit and Christ within us "pray for us" when our own efforts are weak, and far more. Much of it may be difficult to ponder, but the ring of truth and love are so clear that the light of resurrection shows the cross to be a shadow. Superb work to be read at any time, but particularly when one is struggling in one's own prayer life. Those who are familiar with this brilliant Jesuit through his systematic theology will see that the picture is incomplete without observing what a great man of prayer he was.

A powerful book on prayer by one the most important Christian theologians of the 20th century.

If you think you want to pray but have trouble even beginning because belief in a loving God seems like ludicrously wishful thinking in such a mess of a world, try out this book. Rahner understands suffering, he understands atheism, he understands angst--this book is based on sermons preached in bombed-out Munich in 1946--and yet he dares to be Christian and to pray.

(Two other books that I've found especially helpful: C. S. Lewis's "Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer" and Ann and Barry Ulanov's "Primary Speech: A Psychology of Prayer.")

Rahner's "Foundations" is a long, bumpy, difficult ride. The concepts are brilliant and challenging. They undoubtedly illuminate the faith of Christians and profoundly portray Catholicism. Rahner's mode of expression, however, is dense and difficult....

. . .to the theology of the foremost Catholic theologian of the 20th century.

I'll admit up front that I am not a "Rahnerian" in my thinking. Nevertheless, the contributions this man made to philosophy and theology in the 20th century cannot be measured. In "Foundations of Christian Faith", the reader can gain an understanding of Rahner's beliefs presented in a more or less systematic fashion. This is refreshing, because most of Rahner's writings are preserved in collections of essays -- very valuable in and of themselves, but not systematic in their presentation.

This volume is a systematic presentation. Rahner begins from a philosophical perspective informed primarily by St. Thomas Aquinas, but filtered through the lens of German idealism. He begins with discussions on such subjects as Man as Person, Man as Transcendent Being, Questions of Personal Existence, and moves first to God as Absolute Mystery, Guilt, God's Self-Communication, and leads naturally into soteriology, Christology, and ecclesiology.

Whether at the end of the day one find's Rahner's arguments convincing (I don't fully) they are nevertheless compelling and should be studied by Protestants as well as Catholics.

Though densley packed and, at least at the outset, entirely too "transcendental" to be understood in a proper light, Rahner's "Foundations" provides an excellent introduction to his themes and ideas. Written in the latter part of his life, it is amazing that he was able to condense his more than 50 published works into one 400 page book.

This is a fantastic book for the late undergraduate or early graduate student who studies theology. It is particularly useful having read Husserl, Heidegger, and Sartre, from whom Rahner borrows heavily (amazing, to have a Catholic theologian borrow from two atheists and an agnostic). Though it is devoid of the normal scriptural references found in a theology book, and it does not treat the foundations of Christianity in Judaism in a fair way, it is nevertheless an important and vital work of philosophical catholic theology.

Rahner will argue that God is the constitutive element of man... and after reading the book it is hard to truly disagree.

As a priest, pastor,teacher, and preacher of God's Word, I found this work by Karl Rahner, SJ, to benefit my research as I prepared my homilies and sermons, as well as to, edify my prayer and spiritual life. I highly recommend this work for those who are interested in the Word proclaimed in the liturgy and for those who simply need an aid to interpreting God's Word.

It is unfortunate that this lovely work will never receive the credit it deserves, because it is not "one size fits all." Karl Rahner's prayers, as presented here, are not general devotions, but deep meditations, simply offered but highly intense in their fashion, regarding various aspects of his own life in Christ. It is a wonderful, rather humbling look at the gratitude, awe, and love which this great theologian offered to His God. However, it is not a suitable gift for anyone who is looking only for a book of general devotions, because many chapters relate directly to Rahner's own circumstances.

I read most of Fr. Rahner's "Trinity" during research on a graduate term paper in Catholic theology. He very clearly and systematically presents his rationale for his famous maxim, "The immanent Trinity is the economic Trinity, and the economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity." Fr. Rahner's chief "complaint," the practical neglect of the mystery of the Trinity in theological reflection on the mystery of salvation, is an important criticism of "neo-scholastic" theology (the adaptation of classical scholasticism to defend orthodoxy against modernistic attacks in the 18th through mid-20th centuries). However, Fr. Rahner seems entirely uncritical of his "solution," esp. in failing to acknowledge the obvious conundrums of strictly identifying the eternal Persons with Their respective temporal manifestations in salvation history.

This book is an important read on the Trinitarian meaning of salvation, as well as a landmark in "resourcement theology" (renewal of Christian theology based on "revisit" of its patristic and biblical roots). One need not totally agree with Fr. Rahner's conclusions to benefit from his comprehensive "meditation" on the subject.

This is an excellent edition of Rahner's "The Trinity." Included is an informative introduction by the late Catholic Trinitarian scholar Catherine Mowry Lacugna (to be read both before and after finishing the main book itself). An extremely valuable glossary is also included along with a rather short index of topics. The 6 page glossary is probably worth the price of the book itself.

Rahner maintains that the bulk of religious literature would remain virtually unchanged if the doctrine of the Trinity was deemed false. This slim volume is designed to rectify this situation. Ironically Rahner rarely returns to the subject of the Trinity in his writings after this volume; even his magnum opus "Foundations of Christian Faith" has few references to the doctrine. Regardless, this volume is important as it sounds the trumpet that the Catholic Church believes this doctrine is important and necessary. The 20th Century is replete with theologians from both the Protestant and Orthodox segments of the Christian faith attempting to give prominence to the Trinity. Rahner, one of the Catholic Church's better scholars joins this thrust.

The book is divided into 3 parts. The first deals with the state of the Trinity in Catholic scholarship when Rahner wrote this treatise (1967). Rahner states his method and structure of how he will confront the Trinity with what has become known as Rahner's Rule: "The economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity, and the immanent Trinity is the economic Trinity." This first part has two important aspects. The first is a discussion of whether the Father could have done the part the Son played in salvation and vice versa. This is emphatically denied by referring to the rule stated above. The second discussion worth noting is one which discusses how medieval scholarship (scholasticism) chose to begin a discussion of the Trinity by referring to the unity before it spoke of its multiplicity (One God, then three Persons).

The second section illustrates the doctrine of the Trinity from the viewpoint of the Magisterium. This represents the main lines of the Catholic teachings. This is important for Rahner as he must incorporate his own teachings on the Trinity within this overarching framework and illustrate how it further illuminates the doctrine without overstepping its boundaries.

The third section is Rahner's own synthesis of the doctrine. The best part of this section is Rahner's discussion of the use of the word 'Person' to describe a member of the Godhead. There is talk of switching to more descriptive terms such as 'distinct manner of subsisting' (contrasted with Karl Barth's 'manner of being'). Rahner argues that there is too much individuality (and a sense of duality) read into our use of the word 'Person'. I found this discussion to be the most illuminating of the entire book.

Rahner's dry but informative treatise is important in that it reflects Catholic scholarship on the doctrine of the Trinity. A good follow-up for a current Catholic understanding would be Catherine Mowry Lacugna's excellent 'God for Us.'