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tdwightdavis's review against another edition
I'm not going to give this book a rating because I don't think I understood it well enough to adequately interact with it on any sort of actual level. This is, hands down, one of the most difficult and unpleasant experiences I've had while reading. Rahner's language is muddled, his sentences regularly run in excess of 100 words, and his thought is so couched in Heidegger and phenomenology that unless you understand those two things you will be lost. Highly abstract with almost no concrete theological reflection. I doubt I'll be revisiting this.
aimiller's review
challenging
informative
slow-paced
4.0
So in the very first pages of this book, Rahner states essentially that one of the challenges of his book is people approaching it who are not smart well-read enough will find it very challenging and might dismiss it out of hand. I am that person, though I tried to work with it and meet the text where it was at.
Needless to say, I would have gotten way more out of this book if I had a stronger grounding in like very basic theology and philosophy. This isn't to say it was wholly worthless to me--some sections I found super enlightening and powerful, especially the section on the church, and there are specific parts I would love for everyone to read to better understand how Catholicism works and functions as a religion, as a body composed of a church and of individuals. More challenging sections that I would probably need to return to a couple of times include the chapter on Jesus Christ (yes, hilarious that is the chapter I didn't understand the most in a book about Christianity,) and the one about eschatology.
Still probably the most comprehensive book about Catholic theology I've ever read, and despite some of the challenges in terms of density, I would say Rahner's writing is very approachable, and even funny at times. (His section about the use of the word God in particular had me giggling.) Would say definitely a necessary read and I hope I can some day come back to this with a better appreciation for the nuances and a better understanding overall.
Needless to say, I would have gotten way more out of this book if I had a stronger grounding in like very basic theology and philosophy. This isn't to say it was wholly worthless to me--some sections I found super enlightening and powerful, especially the section on the church, and there are specific parts I would love for everyone to read to better understand how Catholicism works and functions as a religion, as a body composed of a church and of individuals. More challenging sections that I would probably need to return to a couple of times include the chapter on Jesus Christ (yes, hilarious that is the chapter I didn't understand the most in a book about Christianity,) and the one about eschatology.
Still probably the most comprehensive book about Catholic theology I've ever read, and despite some of the challenges in terms of density, I would say Rahner's writing is very approachable, and even funny at times. (His section about the use of the word God in particular had me giggling.) Would say definitely a necessary read and I hope I can some day come back to this with a better appreciation for the nuances and a better understanding overall.
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