Translation of: Was heisst Jesus lieben? and Wer ist dein Bruder?

What Does It Mean To Love Jesus? -- On Love for Jesus -- Some Preliminary Clarifications -- MEre Human Being? Abstract Idea? -- The Risk of a Relationship -- Bridge to Someone Far Away -- Diversity as Task -- The Courage to Throw Your Arms Around Him -- Our Relationship to Jesus -- The Modernizing of Christology -- Problems of a Traditional Christology -- What Happens When We Love Jesus? -- Jesus Christ as the Meaning of Life -- The Search for Meaning -- The Search for Jesus -- Jesus Christ, the Meaning and Salvation of Human Existence -- Faith in Jesus Christ -- Who Are Your Brother and Sister? -- Preliminary Considerations -- Love for God and Human Beings -- The Unity of Disposition and Act -- The Historical Guise of Love of Neighbor -- Addressing a New Situation -- A New Situation for Christian Communion -- A World of Intercommunication -- Consequences -- Dangers of True Communion -- The Openness of Communion -- Christian Mission of Communion -- Social Dimension of Communion -- Communion in the Parish or Local Community -- A Confessing Communion -- The Mystery of Unselfish Communion

In the two simple questions addressed in this book –"What does it mean to love Jesus?" and "Who is my neighbor? "–we hear the heartbeat of the Christian faith. This is what faith confesses in its innermost being. In New Testament terms it is the twofold obligation of the Great Commandment. In his theological reflection on these apparently self-evident questions, Karl Rahner shows that they are actually laden with mystery, existential questions that are pressing for an answer at all times in the life of any Christian. The question of the love of Jesus is a far more difficult one than it appears on first sight. It is actually the question: How does one attain to the nearness all lovers seek when the beloved is an historical figure so removed from us? In the course of handling this question. Father Rahner deals, explicitly as well as between the lines, with all the great christological issues of our day. In the second part of the book, Father Rahner deals with the second half of the Great Commandment and explicitly with the question that Jesus answered by means of the parable of the Good Samaritan. But we in turn ask: Is such a direct expression of neighbor-love, such an immediate response to a neighbor in need, possible today? How can we show neighbor-love in a so-called welfare society with its various forms of social benefits, "security nets"and entitlements? And what about our other "neighbors"–those far of in Latin America, Asia, and Africa? How can a Christian be a "good Samaritan" in a global context? Whit his customary penetration and incisiveness, Karl Rahner outlines for us the new historical situation in which Christians find themselves today and reflects on new ways and means of responding to the perennial demands of the Gospel.