The Sacramentality of the Word: Contributions of Karl Rahner and Louis-Marie Chauvet to a Roman Catholic Theology of the Word

The twentieth century witnessed a renewed interest in the development of a Roman Catholic theology of the word. The beginning of this renewal is marked by the work of Karl Rahner who, before the Second Vatican Council, decried the fact that Roman Catholicism, in contrast to the Protestant theological tradition, lacked an adequate theology of the word. Relying on a Roman Catholic theology of grace, Rahner's work, along with that of sacramental theologian Louis-Marie Chauvet, demonstrates the Roman Catholic conviction that the word is fundamentally sacramental: it has the capacity to bear God's presence to humanity.

This dissertation examines the contributions of Rahner and Chauvet, contextualizing them within the larger Christian tradition, and identifying ways in which their contributions advanced a Roman Catholic theology of the word. To that end, the first chapter describes the twentieth-century context. The second chapter treats classical sacramental theology: the work of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Here words are identified as types of signs, and similarities between classical approaches to God's revelation found in scripture and in the sacraments are demonstrated. The third chapter considers the work of Reformation theologians Martin Luther and John Calvin. These figures emphasize that the scriptural word is also the sacramental word of promise; they grapple with the necessity of material elements to mediate God's grace in a fallen world. The fourth chapter examines Rahner's efforts to demonstrate the relationship between word and sacrament by contextualizing them within an understanding of an already graced world in which language is the privileged place of the self-expression of God. The fifth chapter examines Chauvet's work, focusing on the sacramentality of language, culture, and creation, yet emphasizing the radical absence of the body of the Risen Christ. Christians are formed by the word into the body of Christ through participation in liturgy and maintenance of a sacramental world. The conclusion compares these approaches, and analyzes their implications for Trinitarian theology, sacramentality, and the understanding of the relationship between word and sacrament. It suggests that the principle of sacramentality is a necessary consideration for Roman Catholic theologies of the word.