Rahner's Rule: An Emperor without Clothes?

Author: RANDAL RAUSER

Source: International Journal of Systematic Theology, Volume 7, Number 1, January 2005 , pp. 81-94(14)

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Abstract:

Karl Rahner's famous Rule, ‘The “economic” Trinity is the “immanent” Trinity, and the “immanent” Trinity is the “economic” Trinity’, has had an enormous impact on trinitarian theology. Yet it is extraordinarily difficult to identify a reading of the Rule that meets two essential criteria: (1) it is interesting (that is, not trivial), and (2) it is possibly true. In this paper I consider three possible readings: strict realist, loose realist, and finally antirealist. Unfortunately, each reading leaves the Rule either trivial or obviously false and so fails to meet both criteria, thus calling into question the theological value of the Rule.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2400.2005.00153.x

Affiliations: 1: Taylor Seminary, 11525 23 Ave., Edmonton, AB, T6J 4T3, Canada.

Publication date: 2005-01-01