Hans Küng

The Catholic Church has been nearly destroyed by its resistance to change, censured for its abuses. Pope Francis has promised reform: radical theologian Hans Küng here presents what Catholics have long been yearning for: modern responses to the challenges of a modern world. In 1962 the Second Vatican Council met in the hope they could, in the words of Pope John XXIII, ‘open the windows of the Church and let some fresh air in.’ Hans Küng and Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, were both there. In Can We Save the Catholic Church? Kung relates how after fifty years the Church has only grown more conservative. Refusing to open dialogue on celibacy for priests; the role of women in the priesthood; homosexuality; or the use of contraception even to prevent AIDS, the Papacy has lost touch. Now, amid widespread disillusion over child abuse, the future of Catholicism is in crisis. Pope Francis seems sincere in his wish for a more compassionate Church. The time is ripe for reform, and here Küng calls for a complete renewal of the Church. As grassroots support grows Can We Save the Catholic Church? makes an inspiring and compelling case for offering a new Catholicism to the modern world.

The lectures collected in this volume shed some fascinating light on Hans Kung's career and present a moving picture of one of the greatest theologians of our time.

For Hans Kung, as for many other people, something can sometimes appear in Mozart's music which goes beyond the human dimension and gives intimations of a bliss which transcends even all music. In this short book he sets out to identify what it is. Much, he argues, has been written about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but relatively little about the religious dimension of his person and music. While it is completely taken for granted that Johann Sebastian Bach has Protestant roots and was a pious man, that Mozart was a Catholic and wrote music for masses is virtually ignored. So the first part of the book looks at Mozart's life and music from this perspective and asks how it contributes towards those 'traces of transcendence' which may be perceptible to those open to them. The second part sheds new light on Mozart's Coronation Mass by setting it against its contemporary cultural and political horizon and the critical confrontation with religion beginning at the time of its composition. Here is a work which is not only worthy to stand alongside Karl Barth's famous study, but which for many readers will even eclipse it.

Kung assesses the teachings and writings of the men whom he deems to be the greatest Christian thinkers of the past two millennia, discussing the significance of each thinker's work and life, and showing how he affected the trajectory of Christian thought, and indeed, of Christian civilization. Includes works by Karl Barth, Thomas Aquinas, Saint Paul, Martin Luther, and others.

Now, forty years since its original publication, Hans Kung's groundbreaking study--acclaimed as a model for ecumenical discussion--has become a classic work. Looking at the doctrine of justification as understood by the Protestant theologian Karl Barth in comparison to classic Roman Catholic theology, Kung found that the two had similar ideas about the main elements of justification. He argued there is fundamental agreement between Catholicism and Barth's doctrine and that the somewhat divergent viewpoints "would not warrant a division in the Church." This anniversary edition now features a new essay assessing Kung's work in light of contemporary ecumenical dialogues between Roman Catholics and Protestants.

As the twentieth century draws to a close and the rush to globalization gathers momentum, political and economic considerations are crowding out vital ethical questions about the shape of our future. Now, Hans Kung, one of the world's preeminent Christian theologians, explores these issues in a visionary and cautionary look at the coming global society. How can the new world order of the twenty first century avoid the horrors of the twentieth? Will nations form a real community or continue to aggressively pursue their own interests? Will the Machiavellian approaches of the past prevail over idealism and a more humanitarian politics? What role can religion play in a world increasingly dominated by transnational corporations? Kung tackles these and many other questions with the insight and moral authority that comes from a lifetime's devotion to the search for justice and human dignity. Arguing against both an amoral realpolitik and an immoral resurgence of laissez faire economics, Kung defines a comprehensive ethic founded on the bedrock of mutual respect and humane treatment of all beings that would encompass the ecological, legal, technological, and social patterns that are reshaping civilization. If we are going to have a global economy, a global technology, a global media, Kung argues, we must also have a global ethic to which all nations, and peoples of the most varied backgrounds and beliefs, can commit themselves. "The world," he says, "is not going to be held together by the Internet." For anyone concerned about the world we are creating, A Global Ethic for Global Politics and Economics offers equal measures of informed analysis, compassionate foresight, and wise counsel.

Hans Kung's Global Responsiblity, published in 1991, marked an important new stage in his work. On the one hand it led to his magisterial books on Judaism and Christianity, and on the other hand it led to the Declaration toward a Global Ethic, approved by the Parliament of the World Religions in 1993, and the setting up of the Global Ethic Foundation of which he is president. This book marks a further practical step forward. In it Kung enters into a detailed examination of current ethical issues in politics and economics in a way which will surprise those who regard him solely as a theologian. Discussed at every stage of its creation with experts in politics and economics, his argument shows a quite remarkable grasp of contemporary issues and has that professional touch which is so much a hallmark of all that he has written. Can politics break all the rules, whether in international politics, domestic questions or in their personal lives? Is power everything, and do the means justify the end? These are the questions dealt with in the first part, which offers historical surveys of Realpolitik and more idealistic attempts at an alternative along with discussions of the war in former Yugoslavia and the Gulf War. Is the welfare state doomed? Is the market a law to itself? Does the future lie with the transnational companies? How much scope is there fore ethics in a business world which increasingly seems to be dominated by financial scandals? These are the issues in the second part. As well as tackling all these difficult questions in depth, Hans Kung offers his own concrete suggestions for a more humane social order. His vision will fascinate all those concerned for a better world, of all religious beliefs or none. Hans Kung was President of the Global Ethic Foundation in Tuebingen, Germany.

In a theological study of Mozart's music, Kung discusses the composer's Catholic background--something that, surprisingly, has hardly been treated by scholars--and reveals, among other things, the possibility of a new creative understanding of Mozart's "Coronation Mass", as interpretated by Mozart's music. A provocative study that may even surpass Karl Barth's famous work.

Der Band enthalt Texte Kungs zu Menschen, denen er auf seinem Werdegang begegnet ist und die ihn gepragt haben. Er schliesst mit Kungs geistigem Vermachtnis Was ich glaube. Aufgenommen ist ein Verzeichnis aller Texte der Samtlichen Werken sowie eine Ubersicht aller Monografien Hans Kungs und deren Ubersetzungen.

Der Band schildert temperamentvoll, wie die Umbruche in Kirche und Gesellschaft seit 1968 Kung veranderten und warum er jenen Lebensweg ging, der ihn zum Pionier der Okumene, zum Partner im interreligiosen Dialog und zum Hoffnungstrager fur eine erneuerte Kirche gemacht hat, die ihn zu disziplinieren suchte. Kung wird zu einem der meistgelesenen Theologen weltweit und zum Gegenspieler von Joseph Ratzinger, spater Papst Benedikt XVI.

Band 21 ist der erste von drei Erinnerungsbanden. Er umfasst die ersten vier Lebensjahrzehnte eines reichen Theologenlebens: von Kungs Schweizer Jugend und dem Entschluss, Priester zu werden, uber die Ausbildung in Rom und den beginnenden Kampf um Freiheit, seine Zeit in Paris und Tubingen bis zum Zweiten Vatikanische Konzil.

Der Band enthalt u.a. das Schlusselwerk Weltethos fur Weltpolitik und Weltwirtschaft samt aktualisiertem Wirtschaftsteil und zeigt, dass Weltpolitik und -wirtschaft fur eine friedlichere, gerechtere und humanere Welt eine ethische Grundorientierung brauchen: die Anwendung von Projekt Weltethos.

Fur Hans Kung fand Theologie nie im luftleeren Raum statt. Schon fruh beschaftigte er sich mit den Beziehungen von Religion zu Literatur, Musik und Kunst. Wie muss sich Theologie im Spiegel der Literatur wahrnehmen? Welche neuen Formen des Umgangs mit Religion hat die Literatur entwickelt? Der vorliegende Band versammelt die einschlagigen Werke Kungs, etwa "Musik und Religion. Mozart - Wagner - Bruckner", "Kunst und Sinnfrage" oder "Dichtung und Religion" (Pascal, Gryphius, Lessing, Holderlin, Novalis, Kierkegaard, Dostojewski, Kafka) und "Anwalte der Humanitat" (Thomas Mann, Hesse, Boll).

Seit vielen Jahrzehnten sind die Weltreligionen zentrales Thema von Hans Kung. Mit seinen weltweit einflussreichen Buchern hat er Pionierarbeit fur den Dialog der Kulturen geleistet. In seinem umfassenden Hauptwerk dieses Bandes "Der Islam. Geschichte - Gegenwart - Zukunft" beschreibt er die Paradigmenwechsel im Lauf einer 1400jahrigen Geschichte, zeichnet die unterschiedlichen Stromungen nach und sichtet die Positionen des Islam zu den Fragen der Gegenwart. Eine umfassende Analyse der politischen, kulturellen und religiosen Bedeutung des Islam, wie sie nur Hans Kung schreiben kann. Dieser Band zeigt: Ohne einen Dialog mit dem Islam wird es keinen dauerhaften Weltfrieden und kein konfliktfreies Miteinander in Europa geben. Wer die Welt verstehen will, muss auch den Islam verstehen. Ein historisch begrundeter, theologisch brisanter und hochpolitischer Band

In gleichnamigen Hauptwerk dieses Bandes erklart Kung die Entstehung und oft dramatische Entwicklung der Religionen, beschreibt deren Ethos und skizziert aktuelle Herausforderungen. Er skizziert und erlautert daruber hinaus den spezifischen Beitrag der Religionen zu einem Weltethos.

Hans Kung zeigt, dass Gottesglaube und Moderne vereinbar sind, trotz zunehmender Individualisierung, Rationalisierung und Pluralisierung und trotz des Bedeutungsruckgangs von Religion. Er reflektiert dazu historisch und systematisch breit uber die Gottesfrage der Moderne. Dabei werden die hochkomplexen Probleme auch fur Nichttheologen leichter verstandlich, weil Kung immer wieder von massgebenden Gestalten ausgeht, von Gottglaubigen und Atheisten, Philosophen und Theologen: von Descartes und Pascal bis Marx, Nietzsche, Freud und Karl Barth. Die Reflexionen wollen helfen, Gott neu zu entdecken durch Gotteserfahrungen in Gebet und Gottesdienst, im eigenen Innern und im Alltag der Welt.

Band 7 der gesammelten Werke Hans Kungs zeigt, wie sehr sich Kungs Denken in standiger Horizonterweiterung weiterentwickelt und ihn dabei die Freude an der Philosophie bestandig begleitet hat. Den Kern des Bandes bildet das Grundlagenwerk zur Philosophie Hegels "Menschwerdung Gottes". Voraus geht ein fruherer und kaum bekannter Text zur Diskussion von Arnold J. Toynbees Geschichtsphilosophie. Im Anschluss daran beschreibt Kung seinen eigenen Weg in der Philosophie. Der Band schliesst mit zwei Reden anlasslich der Verleihung des philosophischen Ehrendoktorats an Hans Kung an den Universitaten Genua und Madrid.