Hans Küng

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Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Hans Küng (Template:IPA; 19 March 1928 – 6 April 2021) was a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and author. From 1995 he was president of the Foundation for a Global Ethic (Stiftung Weltethos).

Küng was ordained a priest in 1954, joined the faculty of the University of Tübingen in 1960, and served as a theological adviser during the Second Vatican Council. In 1978, after he rejected the doctrine of papal infallibility, he was not allowed to continue teaching as a Catholic theologian, but he remained at Tübingen as a professor of ecumenical theology until he retired with the title professor emeritus in 1996. He remained a Catholic priest until his death. He supported the spiritual substance of religion, while questioning traditional dogmatic Christianity.<ref name="Geyer" /> He published Christianity and the world religions: paths of dialogue with Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism in 1986, wrote Dying with Dignity together with Walter Jens in 1998, and signed the appeal Church 2011, The Need for a New Beginning. He was awarded honorific doctorates internationally, and received numerous awards including the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in 2008.

Life and work

Education

Küng was born in Sursee, Canton of Lucerne.<ref name="Dominik Weingartner (dlw) 2021">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="FAZ 2021">Template:Cite news</ref> He was the eldest of seven siblings; his father managed a shoe store.<ref name="Patricia Lefevere" /> He studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and was ordained in 1954.<ref name="Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) 2021">Template:Cite web</ref> He said his first Mass in St. Peter's Basilica preaching to the Swiss guard, many of whom he knew personally.<ref name="Patricia Lefevere" /> He continued his education in various European institutions, including the Sorbonne<ref name="Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) 2021" /> and the Institut Catholique de Paris,<ref name="Patricia Lefevere" /> where he obtained a doctorate in theology in 1957.<ref name="americaobit">Template:Cite news</ref> He then did pastoral work in Lucerne for two years. At the invitation of Karl Barth, he delivered a lecture on the prospects for reform of the Catholic Church—he was very optimistic—just a week before Pope John XXIII announced his plans for a council in January 1959.<ref name="Patricia Lefevere" />

Career

Küng taught for a year at the University of Münster<ref name=americaobit/> and then, in 1960, he was appointed professor of fundamental theology at the University of Tübingen in Germany.<ref name="Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) 2021" /> He launched his writing career that same year with The Council, Reform and Reunion in which he outlined much of what became the program of the upcoming council; it proved a bestseller in several countries.<ref name="Patricia Lefevere" /> In 1962 he was appointed peritus by Pope John XXIII, serving as the youngest (34) expert theological advisor to participants in the Second Vatican Council until its conclusion in 1965. At Küng's instigation, the Catholic faculty at Tübingen appointed another peritus, Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, as professor of dogmatic theology.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

During a 1963 tour of the United States, Küng gave the lecture "The Church and Freedom" to enthusiastic audiences of more than 25,000 at several universities around the country, but was not allowed to appear at the Catholic University of America.<ref name="nytobit">Template:Cite news Template:Subscription required</ref><ref name="Patricia Lefevere">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Efn He received the first of many honorary doctorates from the Jesuits' St. Louis University that year, but the school was chastised for not getting Rome's permission to do so.<ref name="Patricia Lefevere" /> In April 1963, he accepted an invitation to visit John F. Kennedy at the White House,<ref>Template:Cite bookTemplate:Page needed</ref> where Kennedy introduced him to a group of politicians saying "this is what I would call a new frontier man of the Catholic Church".<ref name="Patricia Lefevere" />

Küng's doctoral thesis was published in English in 1964 as Justification: The Doctrine of Karl Barth.Template:Efn It identified a number of areas of agreement between Barthian and Catholic theologies of justification, concluding that the differences were not fundamental and did not warrant a division in the Church. (The book included a letter from Karl Barth attesting that he agreed with Küng's representation of his theology. Barth however did not agree with Küng's conclusion that the Reformation was an overreaction.) In this book Küng argued that Barth, like Martin Luther, overreacted against the Catholic Church which, despite its imperfections, has been and remains the body of Christ.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Veteran newsperson Patricia Lefevere,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> writing for the National Catholic Reporter, says the Holy Office "opened a secret file (the infamous 399/57i) on Küng shortly after he wrote [this book]".<ref name="Patricia Lefevere" />

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Küng in 1973

In the late 1960s, he became the first major Catholic theologian since the late 19th century Old Catholic Church schism to publicly reject the doctrine of papal infallibility in his book Infallible? An Inquiry (1971). It was published three years after the Vatican had first asked Küng to address accusations against his earlier volume, The Church. After the publication of Infallible, Vatican officials requested he appear in Rome to answer charges. Küng stood his ground, demanding to see the file the church had amassed and to speak with whoever was evaluating his work.<ref name="Patricia Lefevere" /> But Küng had also criticized celibacy, wanted to open the clergy and the diaconate to women, called the ban on dispensations for priests who wanted to leave the priesthood "a violation of human rights", and had written that current Catholic practices "contradicted the Gospel and ancient Catholic tradition and ought to be abolished".<ref name="Patricia Lefevere" /> On 18 December 1979, he was stripped of his license to teach as a Catholic theologian.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sixty American and Canadian theologians protested the Vatican action and contradicted the Vatican's ruling by saying: "We publicly affirm our recognition that he is indeed a Roman Catholic theologian."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn A thousand students at Tübingen held a candlelight vigil in protest.<ref name=Stanford>Template:Cite news</ref> Küng later described the Vatican's ruling as "my personal experience of the Inquisition".<ref>Küng, The Catholic Church: A Short History (2002), Introduction, p. xviii: "In 1979 I then had personal experience of the Inquisition under another pope. My permission to teach was withdrawn by the church, but nevertheless I retained my chair and my institute (which was separated from the Catholic faculty). For two further decades I remained unswervingly faithful to my church in critical loyalty, and to the present day I have remained professor of ecumenical theology and a Catholic priest in good standing. I affirm the papacy for the Catholic Church, but at the same time indefatigably call for a radical reform of it in accordance with the criterion of the gospel."</ref> Lefevere writes that:<ref name="Patricia Lefevere" /> Template:Blockquote He remained a priest. Since he could no longer teach on Tübingen's Catholic faculty, the university removed the Institute for Ecumenical Research, which Küng had founded and had headed since the 1960s, along with his professorship, outside of that faculty's jurisdiction. Küng continued to teach as a tenured professor of ecumenical theology until his retirement in 1996.<ref name=Stanford/><ref name="Universität Tübingen 2021" /><ref name="Geyer">Template:Cite web</ref>

While a guest professor at the University of Chicago for three months in 1981, he was invited to only one Catholic institution, the University of Notre Dame. He appeared on The Phil Donahue Show.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In October 1986, he participated in the Third Buddhist–Christian Theological Encounter held at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.<ref>"Emptiness, Kenosis, History, and Dialogue: The Christian Response to Masao Abe's Notion of 'Dynamic Sunyata' in the Early Years of the Abe–Cobb Buddhist–Christian Dialogue", Buddhist-Christian Studies, Vol. 24, 2004.</ref> Küng said his inter-faith studies "solidified his own roots in a living faith in Christ" which he said lasted his entire career. "Indeed, Küng long held that steadfastness in one's own faith and a capacity for dialogue with those of another belief are complementary virtues".<ref name="Patricia Lefevere" />

In the early 1990s, Küng initiated a project called Weltethos ("Global Ethic"), which is an attempt at describing what the world's religions have in common (rather than what separates them) and at drawing up a minimal code of rules of behaviour that everyone can accept. His vision of a global ethic was embodied in the document Towards a Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration. This Declaration was signed at the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions by religious and spiritual leaders from around the world. Later Küng's project would culminate in the United Nations Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations (2001) to which Küng was assigned as one of 19 "eminent persons". Even though it was completed shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 (in September 2001), it was not covered in the U.S. media, a fact about which Küng complained.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1986, he met in person with Charles Curran, a theologian who was then being threatened with the loss of his license to teach as a Catholic theologian. He encouraged Curran to continue his work and shared his experience of support and betrayal by his colleagues.<ref name="Curran">Template:Cite news</ref> In the 1990s, Küng spoke out on behalf of fellow Catholic theologian Eugen Drewermann who lost his license to teach Catholic theology and was suspended as a priest because he, like Küng, challenged dogmatic structures. Küng delivered the laudatio when Drewermann was awarded the Herbert-Haag-Prize for Freedom in the Church in 1992 at the University of Tübingen.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Years later when the possible beatification of Pope John Paul II was under consideration, Küng objected that his was "an authoritarian pontificate which suppressed the rights of both women and theologians". He said John Paul's treatment of Latin American liberation theologians like Gustavo Gutiérrez and Leonardo Boff was unchristian.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In March 1991, he gave a talk titled "No Peace Among Nations until Peace Among the Religions" at UCSD's Price Center. He visited the nearby Beth El synagogue and spoke there on modern German–Jewish relations.<ref>"Noted theologian Hans Kung to speak at USCD, synagogue", Rita Gillmon. The San Diego Union, San Diego, Calif.: 9 March 1991. p. B.11</ref>

In 2003, Küng saw the beatification of Pope Pius IX as evidence of the degeneration of canonizations to "gestures of church politics".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Küng made more than a dozen attempts to meet with Pope John Paul without success.<ref name=Stanford/> On 26 September 2005, he had a friendly discussion over dinner at Castel Gandolfo with Pope Benedict XVI, avoiding topics of obvious disagreement and focusing instead of Küng's interreligious and cultural work.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The pope acknowledged his efforts to contribute to a renewed recognition of crucial human moral values in dialogue between religions as well as with secular reason.<ref name="Geyer" />Template:Efn Küng reported that Benedict himself authored the Vatican's statement about their meeting; he said "I approved every word".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In a 2009 interview with Le Monde, Küng sharply criticised Pope Benedict for lifting the excommunications of four bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X. He blamed the pope's lifelong isolation from contemporary society and said that as a consequence of Benedict's desire for a smaller and purer church "the church risks becoming a sect". His remarks drew a rebuke from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In April 2010, he published an open letter to all Catholic bishops in which he criticized Pope Benedict's handling of liturgical, collegial, and inter-religious issues and also the sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. He further called on bishops to consider six proposals, ranging from speaking up and working on regional solutions to calling for another Vatican council.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

He was a signatory of Church 2011, "The Need for a New Beginning",<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a German-language memorandum demanding reform of the Catholic Church that was promulgated by Catholic theology professors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Küng died at home in Tübingen on 6 April 2021 at the age of 93.<ref name="Patricia Lefevere" /> The Pontifical Academy for Life tweeted: "Disappears a great figure in the theology of the last century, whose ideas and analyzes Template:Sic must always make us reflect on the Catholic Church, the Churches, the society, the culture."<ref>Template:Cite tweet</ref> His fellow theologian Charles Curran, who had experienced similar treatment by the Vatican, described Küng as "the strongest voice for reform in the Catholic Church during the last 60 years" and wrote that he was so prolific that "I do not know of anyone who was ever able to even read all that he had written."<ref name=Curran/>

In October 2021 Inge Jens, widow of Küng's close friend and colleague Walter Jens, confirmed that he had a life partner, who lived in his house.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Works

In On Being a Christian (1974), Küng traces Christianity to its roots, extensively using modern scholarship to extract from the Gospels what can be known of the historical Jesus. Rather than beginning with the teaching of Church councils and the highly developed theological propositions propounded from human authorities, he asked if an alternative were possible: "Would it not perhaps correspond more to the New Testament evidence and to modern man's historical way of thinking if we started out like the first disciples from the real human being Jesus, his historical message and manifestation, his life and fate, his historical reality and historical activity, and then ask about the relationship of this human being Jesus to God, about his unity with the Father?"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1998, he published Dying with Dignity, co-written with Walter Jens, in which he affirmed acceptance of euthanasia from a Christian viewpoint.<ref name="Grill">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2005, Küng published a critical article in Italy and Germany on "The failures of Pope Wojtyla" in which he argued that the world had expected a period of conversion, reform, and dialogue but, instead, John Paul II offered a restoration of the pre-Vatican II status, blocking reform and inter-church dialogue, and reasserting the absolute dominion of Rome.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Based on his Studium Generale lectures at Tübingen University, in Der Anfang aller Dinge (The beginning of all things) he discussed the relationship between science and religion. In an analysis ranging from quantum physics to neuroscience, he also commented on the debate about evolution in the United States, dismissing those opposed to the teaching of evolution as "naive [and] un-enlightened".<ref name="evolution">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Kroll">Template:Cite news</ref>

In his 2010 book Was ich glaube, he described his own personal relationship with nature, and how he learned to observe it correctly, which meant drawing strength from God's creation without falling victim to a false and fanatic love of nature.<ref name="Graf">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2013, Küng wrote in Erlebte Menschlichkeit ("Experienced Humanity") that he believed people had the right to end their own lives if physical illness, pain, or dementia made living unbearable. He indicated he was considering the option of assisted suicide for himself because he was suffering from Parkinson's disease and was losing the ability to see and write. Küng wrote that he did not wish to follow the example of Pope John Paul II.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Awards and honors

  • 1991 Swiss culture prize<ref name="Universität Tübingen 2021">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 1992 Karl Barth prize<ref name="Autorinnen und Autoren in Baden-Württemberg">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 1998 Theodor Heuss Foundation prize<ref name="Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) 2021" />
  • 1998 Interfaith gold medallion from the International Council of Christianity and Judaism, London<ref name="Autorinnen und Autoren in Baden-Württemberg" />
  • 1999 Federation of Lutheran cities prize<ref name="Universität Tübingen 2021" />
  • 2003 Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany<ref name="Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) 2021" />
  • 2005 Niwano Peace Prize<ref name="Autorinnen und Autoren in Baden-Württemberg" />
  • 2005 Baden-Württemberg medal<ref name="Universität Tübingen 2021" />
  • 2006 Lew Kopelew Prize<ref name="Autorinnen und Autoren in Baden-Württemberg" />
  • 2007 German freemasonry cultural prize<ref name="Universität Tübingen 2021" />
  • 2007 Honorary Citizen of City of Tübingen<ref name="Katholische Nachrichten 2020">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 2008 Honour for civil courage by the circle of friends Heinrich Heine (Düsseldorf)<ref name="Universität Tübingen 2021" />
  • 2008 Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold from the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, for "outstanding services to peace and international understanding, especially for his exemplary employment for humanity, tolerance and the dialogue between the great world religions"<ref name="Universität Tübingen 2021" />
  • 2009 Abraham Geiger prize from the Abraham-Geiger-Kolleg at the University of Potsdam<ref name="Universität Tübingen 2021"/>
  • 2017 Asteroid 190139 Hansküng, discovered by astronomer Vincenzo Casulli in 2005, was named in his honor.<ref name="MPC-object" /> The official Template:MoMP was published by the Minor Planet Center on 12 March 2017 (Template:Small).<ref name="MPC-Circulars-Archive" />

Honorary doctorates

Source:<ref name="Universität Tübingen 2021" />

  • In The Nonborn King by Julian May, the third book in the Saga of Pliocene Exile, a minor character, Sullivan-Tonn, is referred to as having once been "Küng Professor of Moral Theology at Fordham University"<ref>"The Nonborn King", [Tor, 2013], p. 100</ref>
  • Küng is the favorite theologian of Cedar Hawk Songmaker in Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Writings

English translations

See also

Notes

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References

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Further reading

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