Andreas Batlogg

Being Salvation

Theology

“Karl Rahner’s theological dissertation from 1936, E latere Christi, submitted at the University of Innsbruck/Austria and published only in 1999, shows his early engagement with the church fathers. He knew the sources and went on with it. Here, for the first time, this long-overlooked and underestimated study is, in a fascinating, detailed, and knowledgeable way, comprehensively analyzed and made fruitful for the perception/reception of Rahner’s oeuvre: Jesus as the place of salvation, as locus theologicus, in the writings of Karl Rahner. Thus, at the beginning of Rahner’s oeuvre stands not only Spirit in the World (1939) and Hearer of the Word (1941) but also his profound concern with the tradition of the church fathers, which he wanted to make fruitful for the theology of his time—and for ours. It is remarkable how precisely Brandon R. Peterson deals with the writings of Karl Rahner. He knows Rahner and the most important secondary literature very well. His profound study analyzes, evaluates, and recapitulates. I have read it with immense profit.””