Being Salvation': A Reinterpretation of Rahner's Christ as Savior

While Christ's salvific role as 'primal Sacrament' is a widely documented part of Karl Rahner's soteriology, another major and yet underappreciated part is Christ's identity as 'Representative' (both our representative before God and God's before us). The dissertation uncovers this identity within Rahner's theology, situating it in relation to other historical examples of representative soteriology (e.g., Irenaeus of Lyons) and to Rahner's more familiar sacramental soteriological categories. It gives special attention to Rahner's early studies of and writings on the Church Fathers, particularly Rahner's own untranslated and recently published dissertation, E latere Christi ('From the Side of Christ').