Tuesday, 13 December 2005

A Rahner joke

In a recent comment on Jim West’s blog, Rick Mansfield related the following joke which he once heard from a Catholic priest:

Hugo Rahner had an audience with the Pope. After a great deal of discussion, the Pope asked Hugo Rahner his opinion of the world’s greatest theologian.

Rahner squirmed a little bit, breaking eye contact with the Pope while he sought the proper and most humble way to answer the question. Finally, he looked up, shrugged, and said, “I suppose, Your Grace, I would have to say the world’s greatest theologian is my brother, Karl.”

The Pope’s eyes widened. He sat straight up in his chair in astonishment and exclaimed: “Your brother is KARL BARTH?!”

4 Comments:

R. Mansfield said...

Someone somewhere should start a collection of theological jokes (I don't think they're many, and my wife thinks none of them are funny).

Here's a classic you've surely heard:

Two premillennialists walk into an amillennialist bar. The bartender looks up and says, "You guys still here?"

Anonymous said...

Great idea, R. Mansfield. Indeed, perhaps someone should write a whole theology as a collection of jokes (as Wittgenstein said one should be able to do for philosophy).

The Rahner joke reminded me about "Loving the Lord thy Dodd and thy Niebuhr as thyself."

And how about this one, addressed to a leader of the Religious Right:
"Which of the following is the odd one out: greed, envy, malice, anger, kindness."
[Pause] "And?"

But don't get me started. Isaac should be my middle name!

graham old said...

:-D

Jonathan McCormack said...

Augustine dies and in heaven he gets some time to talk with God. When he comes out he says “Now I understand the beauty of the Trinity!”
*
John Calvin dies and goes in to see God. When he comes out he says “Now I understand predestination!”
*
Karl Barth dies and goes in to see God. Some time later God comes out and says “I have no idea what he is talking about!”

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