Experiência transcendental e existência concreta: explorando o pensamento de Karl Rahner

The concept of ‘transcendental experience’ is at the core of the theological anthropology of Karl Rahner. Since it alludes to the fundamental structure of human existence, it has to be confronted with the concrete forms that this one assumes. ‘Transcendental’ must then be connected with ‘categorial’. The transcendental experience only exists as categorially mediated; it is necessarily informed by the multiple historical situations where human existence takes place. But we may ask if such an experience is universally plausible; it will not be easy to detect it in some concrete configurations of human existence. We will have to verify its structuring presence in each of those ones. Meanwhile, we may not expect this presence to be always evident. It is possible that the analysis of some configurations of human existence will reveal how they are implicitly structured by the transcendental experience.