Karl Rahner who was a great German theologian, a Jesuit of the last century, 50 years ago, after the Vatican Council, wrote an essay called ‘The Future of Christianity’. I read it again recently and I was very struck by how prophetic it was, what deep insights it had into the changes that are taking place in the world, religious consciousness, and what this means for the church, because as much as it is an institution, the church has to adapt to the modern world. Otherwise we become a little ghetto, we just preach to the converted; we become a little clique rather than a church. And the key phrase of this essay ‘The Future of Christianity’ that has remained with me is this sentence: ‘The Christian of the future will be mystical or there will be no Christians.’
Christian Life in the Light of Christian Meditation 3: Evangelisation: by Laurence Freeman OSB
