Encounters with Silence

by Karl Rahner

Book Overview

One of the classics of modern spirituality, Encounters with Silence is one of Karl Rahner's most lucid and powerful books. A book of meditations about man's relation with God, it is not a work of dry theology, but rather a book of prayerful reflections on love, knowledge, and faith, obedience, everyday routines, life with our friends and neighbors, our work and vocation, and human goodness. The immense success of this moving work is a tribute...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1890318221
• ISBN13: 9781890318222
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: St. Augustine's Press
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Exquisite

If I were stuck for the rest of my life on a desert island and could only have one piece of spiritual nourishment, other than the Holy Bible, this would be it. Absolutely gorgeous and deeply moving. This is spiritual poetry of the highest order. It brings tears to my eyes. Exquisite.

Good

The book was recommended to me and ended up being not exactly what I was looking for. But it was an interesting way of reading and viewing life.

A theologian on prayer and meditation

Most seminarians and students first encounter the theologian Karl Rahner as author of big, thick, German tomes of theology. When I took systematic theology, he was considered to be rather more difficult than the typical student of that class could handle - that's all I needed to hear to select him as my primary companion theologian. However, Rahner was not exclusively a systematic theologian - like all great theologians, he knew that theology served a purpose, and that purpose was a higher one, to understand, know, worship and love God more fully. This book develops an extended prayer to God - as such, it is addressed not to the reader (either as subject or object), but rather, like prayer, it is addressed directly to God. There is a certain sense in which Rahner borrows from the collect form of prayer for his titles: I God of My Life II God of My Lord Jesus Christ III God of My Prayer IV God of Knowledge V God of Law VI God of My Daily Routine VII God of the Living VIII God of My Brothers IX God of My Vocation X God Who is to Come In each of these prayers, Rahner's sense of God's love, presence, and mystery come through clearly. God is not a distant being, but one who is always present in an intimate, compassionate way. God is one who calls us in power to be humble servants, yet God is one who supports us in whatever our daily life and work requires us to do. God is, in the end, the final hope for all of us - 'Your coming is neither past nor future, but the present, which has only to reach its fulfillment.' The translator of this small volume, a fellow Jesuit with Rahner, writes, 'the present work [is] proof that his theology is as practical as it is profound.' First written in the 1950s, this continues to be reprinted and re-prayed on a regular basis.

The Silent but Loving God

Traveling the Christian Mystic path, many may end up with silent prayer, experiencing the holiness of God in one's heart & afterwards in death. When the scripture "I shall know even as I am known" will become a reality for us all. Karl Rahner, an Austrian Roman Catholic priest, philosopher, & mystic writes in an almost 'Martin Buber' poetic fashion expressing in words what can't be spoken. Questioning, Reflecting, & Meditating on such topics as 1. God of My Life, 2. God of My Lord Jesus Christ, 3. God of My Prayer, 4. God of Knowledge, 5. God of Law, 6. God of My Daily Routine, 7. God of the Living, 8. God of My Brothers, 9. God of My Vocation, 10. God Who is to Come. Each topic is done within a short chapter, all in 87 pages. This book is very 'Universal' (one of the meaning behind the word Catholic) for Protestants & Eastern Orthodox to read with a careful eye overlooking a few 'Roman' references. Read a topic chapter a night before going to bed for best spirtual effect.

Rahner's Mystical encounters with Silence

"The quiet we seek for retreat ... is more often recalled in its absence than in its presence. When was the last time you witnessed a joyful silence, a rapturous silence? When have you heard some raconteur relay a congenial encounter with silence." Jane H. Kay "I am drawn more and more to the mystical Christ. I always was. There was always something much deeper than words for me. Much emphasis is spent on studying the Word, and while I must admit that the Word speaks deeply to me it is the "non-word" that speaks even more." Fr. Bob Struzynski, OFM Encounters with Silence: Encountering Silence is one of Karl Rahner's most inspiring and mystifying books. A book of meditations about man's relation with God, Rahner's classics of modern spirituality, is cast in the form of a dialogue with God that moves from earnest inquiry to peaceful contemplation. This book of prayerful reflections on love, with obedience, in knowledge, and faith transforms daily routines, spanning life with our Family and friends, that covers our work and vocation. The power of this moving work is a tribute to its mere truth and simple practicality. A great theologian, Rahner, who could easily communicate in profound and touching language to wandering lay men and women, who look for inspiration for their inner life, one that never forsakes the world of reality. The heart of all things: "It must become progressively manifest to the world that the heart of all things is already transformed, because you have taken them all to your heart. ...The false appearance of our world, ... that it has not been liberated... must be more and more thoroughly rooted out. . . . And your coming is neither past nor future, but the present, which has only to reach its fulfillment. Now it is still the one single hour of your advent." Encounters with Silence A Contemporary desert father: " The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will not exist at all," prophicies Karl Rahner. In this moving work by the great mystic who expresses in modern language the daily utterance of the early saintly abbas and ammas of the Church, it is hardly not in order, that a Roman Catholic theologian utters these prayers of the noia (heart of thinking) in his ever continuous self transformation, sanctification by grace, a divinization through the Holy Spirit. 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." 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 pray