Lentorama 2007: The Non-Canonized Catholic Person of the Day

Today's person is Karl Rahner, who is considered one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century (if not the most influential). An ordained priest who spent most of World War II tending a congregation in rural Bavaria, he spent most of his life as a professor and writer.

While he wrote on many topics, and combined the writings and thoughts of Aquainas, Heidegger, and Kant, his most influential theory had to do with the individual's knowledge of God. He posited a natural knowledge of God which was incomplete, and that complete knowledge could only come through a supernatural revelation. Grace plays a role in there, but I have to admit I'm lucky that I was even able to make what I've written to this point sound coherent. No theologian, I.

Rahner was also appointed as a theological expert to Vatican II, and apparently exerted a fair amount of influence.

P.S.: Given that it's the first Monday in March, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Casimir Pulaski, the Polish hero of the US Revolutionary War, whose holiday is being celebrated today. I figured he'd be OK to mention given that Poland is one of the more uniformly Catholic countries out there, but his bio is in the Catholic Encyclopedia, so I'm taking that as confirmation.

Anyway, a happy day off to our friends in Illinois and Wisconsin.