Not just Personal

Rethinking the Grundaxiom of Karl Rahner

Abstract

The article examines the Grundaxiom of Karl Rahner on the Trinity, pointing out that the relation with the world constitutes the divine identity. Overcoming classical and personal theism, God is presented as a trans-personal reality, becoming fully “person” in the relational dialogue with human beings. The author discusses the risk of Subjectivism and modalism in the Rahnerian theses and highlights the pantheistic perspective of Piet Schoonenberg, Catherine LaCugna and Roger Haight, who see the Word and the Spirit as personalized in the event of the hypostatic identity of God. The Trinitarian being is described as the modality of the Absolute to open up to relation.