Peter Fritz

Being Salvation

Theology

“Karl Rahner concluded his theology dissertation, E Latere Christi, by asking whether we can learn from the early church. Peterson asks what we can learn from the early Karl Rahner: not the philosophical Rahner of Geist in Welt but the ressourcement Rahner who pored through Greek and Latin patrologies and discovered Jesus Christ as he who represents salvation. “Representative soteriology” is Peterson’s term for the rich complexity of Rahner’s theology of salvation, centered on a sophisticated understanding of symbol and a deep spirituality formed by Ignatius Loyola and numerous church fathers. This astounding, meticulous work of scholarship recapitulates Rahner anew, incisively exposing many hitherto unstudied sources, perspicaciously illuminating old classics, and judiciously, irenically, and decisively answering Rahner’s most strident critics. Even more, it transcends the bounds of Rahner studies to express—in its form and matter—the beauty, sublimity, and wholeness of salvation in Christ.”