“If you want to understand present-day Roman Catholicism, you must come to terms with Vatican II (1962–65). Everything that Rome now teaches and does is filtered through it. But if you want to understand Vatican II itself, you need to know about Karl Rahner, a theologian whose thought shaped Vatican II and what happened after it. For example, when the Jesuit Pope Francis talks about Muslims as being ‘brothers and sisters,’ the influence of the Jesuit Karl Rahner’s theology of ‘anonymous Christianity’ is apparent. Part of the confused and naive attitude of contemporary evangelicals toward Rome depends on the lack of awareness of both Vatican II and Karl Rahner. This lucid book is a helpful introduction to this seminal Roman Catholic theologian whose language contains all the key Christian words (e.g., Trinity, Christ, humanity), but whose meaning is significantly different from that of straightforward biblical teaching. It is time that Reformed theologians do their homework in grasping what is at stake with contemporary Roman Catholicism, and this book is a promising exercise toward this end.”
“Roman Catholic apologists often boast about their church’s antiquity but seldom mention modern Roman Catholic theology, which often sounds as modern as liberal Protestantism. Karl Rahner, one of the most influential Roman Catholic theologians of the twentieth century, whose prominence was evident at the Second Vatican Council, is one of the best examples of Roman Catholicism’s modernity. Camden Bucey’s fair-minded and careful assessment of Rahner’s theology is valuable in itself, but doubly so for anyone wanting an introduction to modern Roman Catholicism’s own contribution to liberal Christian theology.”
“For those interested in getting to the heart of Karl Rahner’s theology of Trinitarian personality, Camden Bucey’s treatment is exceptional. Bucey lauds Rahner’s insistence that humanity receive the grace of God through communion with him, but the author exposes how Rahner’s methodology—particularly his identifying of Christ’s hypostatic union as conduit of ontological self-communication—falls short. Following in the path of Reformed biblical theologians Geerhardus Vos and Meredith Kline, Bucey shows how God gives himself to his people in a mystical and covenantal bond that has been brought about through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in history.”
“Continuing in the confessional Presbyterian tradition of Geerhardus Vos, Cornelius Van Til, and Robert Strimple, Dr. Bucey not only clearly expounds and trenchantly critiques Rahner’s theological proposal, but also points the way forward to a consistently biblical and covenantal Trinitarian alternative.”
“Though Karl Rahner is among the most significant Roman Catholic theologians of the twentieth century, he is little known (and seldom read) by evangelical and Reformed theologians. Camden Bucey’s fine study offers an excellent summary of Rahner’s Trinitarian theology that promises to redress this problem. He not only provides a helpful explanation of Rahner’s well-known Trinitarian axiom (‘the “economic” Trinity is the “immanent” Trinity’), but also locates it within the broader context of Rahner’s anthropocentric theology. While Bucey critically engages Rahner’s theology from a Reformed perspective, he does so throughout in a careful, irenic, and constructive fashion.”
“Karl Rahner was singularly important to modern theology—both as a key catalyst in the revival of interest in Trinitarian theology and as an important influence on Vatican II and the shaping of modern Catholicism—and yet his work is conceptually daunting for those unfamiliar with the concerns of the transcendental Thomism, which he helped to formulate, and has therefore remained something of a closed book to many Protestants. This volume by Camden Bucey offers both an accessible introduction to Rahner’s thought and a critique from an avowedly Van Tillian perspective. Readers may not agree with all of Bucey’s arguments and conclusions, but he nonetheless provides a dialogue point for engaging an important strand of modern Catholic thought and Van Tillian critiques of Catholic theology.”
