To be a Christian, not because one believes, but because one wishes to hide from and before oneself one's unbelief, which would otherwise terrify one too much.

Karl Rahner (1904–1984), Theologe

Source: Von der Not und dem Segen des Gebetes, Herder 2021 (Neuausgabe), S. 32

Topics: Doubt & Hard Questions, Faith & Trust, Fear & Anxiety

Occasions: For Reflection

Karl Rahner

Karl Rahner (1904–1984) war ein deutscher Jesuit und katholischer Dogmatiker, der als Universitätsprofessor in Innsbruck, München und Münster lehrte. Er prägte als Berater maßgeblich das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil und verband christliche Dogmatik mit moderner Philosophie, wobei sein Konzept des „anonymen Christentums“ konservative theologische Kritik hervorrief. Für heutige Bibelleser bietet sein Denken Zugänge, theologische Grundaussagen im Horizont existenzieller menschlicher Erfahrung und säkularen Denkens zu reflektieren.

All quotes by Karl Rahner (23)

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A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

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Now that I am a Christian I do not have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.

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Faith comes and goes. It rises and falls like the tides of an invisible ocean. If it is presumptuous to think that faith will stay with you forever, it is just as presumptuous to think that unbelief will.

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Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.

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