Karl Rahner famously proclaimed that Vatican II marked the beginning of a new Christian epoch, that of the “world church” (Weltkirche). He also proposed that the Catholic Church develop a global pastoral-strategic plan for the world church. This recommendation needs updating. This can occur through conversation with theologians engaged with Christianity in the Global South: Lamin Sanneh and Gemma Tulud Cruz. They offer ideas regarding the translatability and emerging inclusivity involved in the concrete, localized performances of ecclesial life that constitute the world church. Combined with Rahner’s rendering of the nexus between Christology and ecclesiology, these ideas can impel and guide attempts to think through and live out the church’s catholicity today.

This article provides an update on the logic undergirding Karl Rahner’s theology
of mystery through a dialogue between Rahner and Jean-Luc Marion. It focuses on
Rahner’s account of truth in Aquinas and Marion’s Gifford Lectures on revelation.
Marion’s distinction between “alethic” (modern-epistemological) and “apocalyptic”
(phenomenological-Christian) logics elucidates anew Rahner’s commitment to
mystery as deep, abiding truth. Also addressed is Marion’s Balthasarian concern about
Rahner and “anticipation,” expressed as criticism of the “anonymous Christian.” The
article aims to encourage future, robust theological reflection on truth, an always
timely endeavor.

The author traces an interesting development in Jean-Luc Marion’s thought, from explicit rejection of Karl Rahner’s thought to strong affinities with it. Marion’s early theology aligns itself with Hans Urs von Balthasar’s, making a later turn to Rahner seem impossible. But in his phenomenological trilogy and newer theological reflections, Marion opens to a Rahnerian perspective,