Following Jesus as the Theological Imperative of Hans Kung

Hans Kung recently decided to retire from public life. He is now 84. I first came across the writing and thought of Kung when as a young Baptist minister in my first church I was given a copy of On Being a Christian. It is a huge book - in size, in word count, but more than that, in the scope of its vision of what it means to be a Christian. Reading it was like working out with a personal intellectual trainer. You recognise that the book isn't there to indulge you, but to push you; you don't need to like it, just engage with it; the benefits are not immediate, but they are lasting. 

That book was an eye opener. And my eyes have stayed open. Hans Kung in that book, and in subsequent writing has given to the Church a body of theological and philosophical work that is disruptive, questioning, and demanding. Disruptive in the positive sense of not being content with received wisdom or institutionalised answers; questioning because he is an ardent and patient seeker for truth who is impatient with those who try to obstruct that quest; demanding because he is a bull in the ecclesial china shop, a non-conformist in the most internally conformist tradition of Christian faith; a voice that refuses to be silenced by any authority, (ecclesial or academic) which is hostile to question, enquiry and the reform that discovered and rediscovered truth must inevitably provoke.

Yes he is a pain in the mitre of Pope and Curia; and yes his theology veers in directions some of us think are wrong directions; and maybe he does come over at times as arrogant, self-assured and unwilling to listen and negotiate towards views that others can own. But on the other side his range of knowledge and depth of thought, the combination of rigour and passion in argument, the note of faithfulness to the truth of Jesus as the sub-stratum of theological and philosophical exposition, and all this in a mind both questioning and generous, replete with learning and alert to the urgency of his own priestly vocation; such characteristics make him a complex and necessary voice in contemporary Christian reflection and apologetic

These sentences below sum up the spirituality and loneliness of Kung, his voice not always loved, but always faithful:

Following the cross does not mean copying the suffering of Jesus, it is not the reconstruction of his cross. That would be presumptuous. But it certainly means enduring the suffering which befalls me in my inexchangeable situation - in conformity with the suffering of Christ. Anyone who wants to go with Jesus must deny their self and take upon their self not the cross of Jesus, but their cross, their own cross, then they must follow Jesus. (On Being a Christian, p. 777)

Comments

[Phil]

Jim. Thanks for a great post :-))It resonates with me for many similar reasons as your own. On Being a Christian was also the first book of Kung's I ever read. I was in my twenties and as a Catholic it made me a huge impact on me at a time when the "pat" answers being provided by much of the regular diet of Catholic writers were paradoxically eating away at my faith. Kung enlivened my faith and helped me through a difficult patch.Like you say so well, he taught me to keep my eyes open and maybe my heart too !
I think he was damaged and deeply hurt by the shenanigans of envious people and/or those too afraid to take on the risks required to make changes in he church those in the hierarchy who wanted to hold on to their position and maintain the status quo at any cost.
Kung's more recent writings don't always carry the same force for me as his earlier work, and I have never agreed with all he says but I keep a deep affection for him and owe him an immense sense of gratitude. You have given sound and powerful reasons why we need people like him in the church more than ever. I mourned the loss of Cardinal Martini and will miss Kung in his retirement but I think he has one more volume of his autobiography memoirs to complete so not all has been said yet ! Blessings

[gabriel sorzano]

Every person must have hope, because Christ told us, but for the Church even with Hans Kung trying there is very little hope.

Because they like as it is, the priests love being a priestly class and they dont want to give it up, that is the main reason of not changing, even John XXIII had a touch of that virus and the obedient ones are hipnotized because they prefer to follow. The others don't know what to do.

It is pretty much like what Christ found, but the gates of hell are not particularly for the Catholic as they believe but for any church that is Christian. the difficult times are going to be difficult.

We have to accept the power that Christ left us and use it, He said:" you will do bigger things than I".