Posted by johnboy on September 12, 1999 at 16:29:44:
In Reply to: Global Ethic considerations posted by johnboy on September 10, 1999 at 14:27:41:
Subj: intrinsic unity of anthropocentric and theocentric ethics
thinking of Rahner's anthropological theology, i want to say that, just like with our experience of God 1) both the natural and the revealed knowledge of the global ethic are mediated; 2) there is an intrinsic unity in these different ways of knowing the global ethic; 3) that unity is derived from our common experience of Absolute Mystery; 4) this might be the same experience that Rahner calls "original experience". http://www.west.net/~fischer/Rahner200.htm
Doesn't the very principle of God's being become constitutive of who we are?
Don't we believe that God created all human beings with the capacity to hear and respond to God? If the capacity is there and, even if we consider it grace, still, while others may be unaware of this unmerited grace, surely they would recognize this "natural" potential which has been added to nature? And they do. And we call it supernatural and they call it natural but both experience it as an orientation to mystery and to horizon and to concerns about human ultimacies and to an ethic.
Rahner claims that God does not choose to communicate to some, and not to others. Rather, God creates in us an emptiness, a hunger for God, in order to fill it. God is love because, instead of remaining alone with the divine self, God creates an emptiness God wants to fill. --- These are Mark Fischer's paraphrases of Rahner's concepts http://www.west.net/~fischer/Rahner000.htm
Fischer discusses Rahner's theology as regards humanity's "Supernatural Existential" and God's "Divine Communication" and it is this "existential" which, to me, provides the substrate for the global ethic in believers and nonbelievers alike. It could provide the common root system through which we drink of our solidarity, taste of the ethic and find both sustenance and nurturance through our compassion.