 | By: Hans Kung Binding: Hardcover Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company ISBN: 0802826598 ISBN-13: 9780802826596 Released: 09 Sep 2003 RRP: Average Rating:  |
Hans Kung is one of the most influential, & in some circles, most controversial theologians of the last century. This first part of his autobiography covers standard areas one would expect to be included, family background & such like, but by far the greater part of the book focuses on Kung's theological formation in Rome & his subsequent role during the Second Vatican Council.
The book is surprising in many respects, not least in Kung's rapier-like ability to settle old scores. On this evidence I would far rather have Kung as a friend than an enemy! His settling of old scores is not gratuitous but it is clinical. Several times I'm sure I actuallly said 'Ouch!' as I read his critique of those who had crossed him. Furthermore, whilst I was not surprised to read of the background machinations that surrounded the Council, the detail in which the story is told from Kung's unique vantage point makes this compelling reading.
Two major emphases in the book stand out for me. Firstly, the missed opportunity that was the second Vatican Council. With a pasionate exposition of the times & the personalities involved, Kung outlines the critical decisions taken by Pope John XXIII in callling the Council. The tremendous faith & vision of the man in daring to seize the moment, but the fatal mistake in not recognising the need to sweep away the Curia 'old guard' (which was within his power) in order to place reformers in charge of the reform agenda.
Secondly, Kung weaves into his own story the ways in which his path has crossed time & again by some of the key personalities of late 20th century theology. Men like Karl Barth, Ernst Kasemann, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Rudolf Bultmann, Yves Congar, Karl Rahner & a host of others richly populate these pages. The book devotes little space to specific discussion of their theology, there is enough here to understand a little of the distinctive contributions that these men brought to their quest for truth & understanding, & the extent to which some suffered because their views were not acceptable to Rome.
At the end I was left wondering why Kung didnt leave the Catholic Church & becoming a famous cross-bench dissenter! That he didn't is a cause for celebration for it is likely that the lasting contribution of this theological genius is that he stayed within & sowed the seeds of future theological reformation within the Catholic Church.
I eagerly await Volume II but I don't imagine the current Curia share this enthusiasm!
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