Abstract

The relationship between reason and revelation in Western thought is a problem as old as Christianity itself and has had significant implications for both philosophical anthropology and fundamental theology. In the Roman Catholic milieu, some form of the Thomist synthesis of faith and reason has been the predominant way of describing the relationship. However, cultural changes of epoch proportions brought about in and through the Enlightenment challenge the conventional approaches to rationality which are presupposed both in this synthesis and its main competitors. ;In this dissertation, I argue that the conception of rationality operative in the thought of the twentieth century Catholic theologian Karl Rahner provides a viable language and framework for dealing with the contemporary situation. In Rahner's thought--which is neither discontinuous with the Thomistic tradition nor oblivious to the contributions and questions of Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment culture--the complementarity of reason and revelation is grounded in a more primitive and original unity encountered in contemplative living and thinking. ;A careful reading of some of Rahner's late works, employing the hermeneutics of retrieval, shows contemplation to be a largely implicit but indispensable key to understanding Rahner's philosophical method, his anthropology, and his model of revelation. This contemplative approach to rationality provides, in turn, a new basis for working out the relationship between philosophy and theology, developing a contemporary approach to apologetics, and facilitating ethical dialogue in a world profoundly aware of its temporality and cultural pluralism