Can Good Catholics Read the Works of Hans Kung

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Can Good Catholics Read the Works of
Hans Kung?
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KEY VATICAN II COUNCIL WORKS
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OTHER WORKS MENTIONING
JUSTIFICATION:
Karl Barth: Romans:
Hans Kung’s book on Justification
argues that Barth’s understanding
is substantially similar to the
doctrine proclaimed at the Council
of Trent
Trent, What Happened at the
Council, John O’Malley
Denzinger: Includes Trent decrees
and joint Lutheran-Catholic
statement on Justification by Faith
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https://amzn.to/3y4Bnac
https://amzn.to/2UMbZrq

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Today we will learn and reflect on the legacy of Hans Kung and his influential writings
that deeply influenced Catholic theology during and after the Second Vatican
Council.
You may ask, how can we benefit when we ponder the legacy of Hans Kung?
Several decades ago, Hans Kung irritated Pope John Paul II and the Curia, and was
banned from teaching Catholic doctrine. So, we must ponder the question,
Can Good Catholics read the works of Hans Kung?
We can learn from his life by pondering another question,
Did errant doctrine, or did his hubris, lead to this ban?

We always like to quote from the works we are
discussing. At the end of our talk, we will discuss
how many of his works influenced Catholicism, what
works got him banned, and my blog that also cover
this topic, which include the web links that we will
discuss. Please, we welcome interesting questions
in the comments, sometimes these will generate
short videos of their own. Let us learn and reflect
together!

To find the source of any
direct quotes in this blog,
please type in the phrase to
the search box in my blog to
see the referenced footnote.
YouTube Description links:
• Script PDF file
• Blog
• Amazon Bookstore
© Copyright 2021

SlideShare contains scripts for my YouTube
videos. Link is in the YouTube description.
© Copyright 2021

Hans Kung recently passed away in April, 2021. Although his license to
teach at a Catholic University was revoked, he was not excommunicated,
and he was not defrocked, he was a priest in good standing, able to
celebrate Mass, until the day he died. His university created an
ecumenical theology department so he could continue to teach in spite
of the Vatican decree, and the Vatican did not object to this arrangement.

Upon the news of his death, the
Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life
tweeted out the following:
“One of the truly great figures in the
theology of the last century is gone,
whose ideas and analyses should
always make the Church, the churches,
society and the culture think.”

If you followed the news last year, it appeared that Pope Francis was
floating a plan to reconcile with Hans Kung, and he quite likely discussed
this with Pope Emeritus Benedict, but the howling objections were way
too loud and nothing became of it.

Explaining the thumbnail, Hans Kung was one of the leading theologians
participating in the Second Vatican Council, and was greatly influential in
drafting many of its decrees. In some ways he reminds me of Luther, he
was incredibly brilliant. Not only could he write for the academics and
theologians, he could also write clearly so the laymen could understand
his often very thick books.
Hans Kung made quite a bit of money publishing best-selling books on
Catholicism. He used this money to buy a bright fire engine red Alfa
Romeo, and he used to race around Rome in his red Alfa Romeo, and his
opponents pointed to his red Alfa Romeo race car as representing the
hubris and arrogance of Hans Kung.

1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ Goodwood

As you can see from my bookstand, I have purchased many, but not all, of the books
Hans Kung has published over many decades. My first taste of Catholicism came
from reading Hans Kung, and the breadth of many of his books is simply
remarkable. This is a housekeeping video, there are a few books he wrote that I
need to consult when I discuss Vatican II, because they were so influential that they
are part of the history of the Second Vatican Council. So, I need to establish that
reading these books by Hans Kung is really okay, especially since Vatican II the
Catholic Church DOES NOT print a list of books Catholics are forbidden to read.
Like Martin Luther, Hans Kung possesses a great deal of self-confidence, bordering
on hubris. Hans Kung is always eager to lecture the Catholic Church on all the
reforms it must enact IMMEDIATELY, and Hans Kung can give you many lists of
necessary reforms.

Several decades ago, I read a news article that quoted Cardinal Schonborn as
saying that although Hans Kung was quite beloved in the Vatican, they really
wish he would quit constantly calling press conferences where he criticized the
Catholic Church for ignoring all his urgent suggestions for reform. Although
there is sympathy although not total agreement with his liberal views on topics
like priestly celibacy, the sexual scandals, and papal infallibility, his constantly
clamoring questioning of the Church teachings on these topics was not helpful,
especially after he kept rocking the boat after being repeatedly warned that he
was not being helpful. After all, Hans Kung was never the sole source of truth.
Some of the more provocative titles of some of his books were not helpful.

Hans Kung was a friend to many in the inner circles of the Catholic Church, since
he was one of the leading theologians of the Second Vatican Council. Indeed, he
gave a friendly reference to the young priest Ratzinger, who was later Pope
Benedict, when he was accepted as a professor at the University of Tubingen in
Germany. Hans Kung was always the more flamboyant, driving around campus in
his fire engine-red Alfa Romeo sportscar. While teaching at Tubingen they had
dinner each Thursday to discuss theology, and they both were editors of a
scholarly theology journal. Sources claim that Ratzinger became more
conservative politically in response to the student protests in the Sixties, though
both Kung and Ratzinger always supported the theological pronouncements of
Vatican II.

Although his license to teach Catholic theology was revoked in
1979, Pope Benedict publicly agreed to spend one fall afternoon
in 2005 with his old university friend, Hans Kung. Oh, that I could
be a fly on the wall to listen to their discussions! Their meeting
was cordial as they reminisced about their friendship in their
youth, they agreed to disagree. Was Kung’s teaching restriction
discussed? Only God and the fly on the wall knows, and Pope
Benedict.

The article reporting this meeting between
Pope Benedict and Hans Kung said, “In terms
of substance, Küng said the two men found
agreement on matters of social policy, the
relationship between faith and reason and
between science and religion, and the need
for Christianity to collaborate with other
world religions in building what Küng has
termed a ‘global ethic.’ ”
This article quotes a fellow theologian saying
this about Hans Kung: “Sometimes Küng
conducts himself like a second magisterium.
To tell you the truth, one is enough, at least
for me.” Our blog has the link for the article.

Hans Kung the troublemaker said this in an article
submitted to the National Catholic Reporter: “On
March 9, 2016, my appeal to Pope Francis to give
room to a free, unprejudiced and open-ended
discussion on the problem of infallibility appeared in
the leading journals of several countries. I was thus
overjoyed to receive a personal reply from Francis
immediately after Easter. Dated March 20, it was
forwarded to me from the nunciature in Berlin.”
You can read Kung’s summary of the response of Pope
Francis in this article. The main take-away is that
Catholics can safely read the writings of Hans Kung,
that the Catholic Church has no interest in banning
books.

.
In this article dated April 19, 2010,
Hans Kung points finger at Pope
Benedict regarding the continuing
child-sex scandal in the Catholic
Church, and other topics. The
article includes the text of his open
letter to the bishops of the Catholic
Church. The reporter notes that he
had a friendly phone conversation
with Hans Kung on the phone but
that he declined an interview
regarding his letter.

The most important published document is the 1979 declaration revoking
the license for Hans Kung to teach Catholic theology by Pope John Paul II,
seconded by Cardinal Ratzinger, shows the irritation at Hans Kung
repeatedly admonishing the faithful as if he were himself like a second
magisterium. This document is quoted in more detail in my blog, which links
to the actual declaration.

Regarding his insistent and repeated writings
rejecting papal infallibility, Pope John Paul II said,
“Hans Küng has in no way sought to conform to
the doctrine of the Magisterium. Instead, he has
recently proposed his view again more explicitly,
even though this sacred congregation had affirmed
that such an opinion contradicts the doctrine
defined by Vatican Council I and confirmed by
Vatican Council II.” His teachings “the
consubstantiality of Christ with his Father, and to
the Blessed Virgin Mary” also differ from Church
doctrine.
Therefore, “this sacred congregation by reason of
its duty is constrained to declare that Professor
Hans Küng, in his writings, has departed from the
integral truth of Catholic faith, and therefore he
can no longer be considered a Catholic theologian
nor function as such in a teaching role.”

There were many in the Vatican who were sympathetic to the views
expressed by Hans Kung, perhaps including Cardinal Ratzinger, later to
become Pope Benedict, but they respected the authority of the Church and
refrained from constantly holding press conferences demanding that the
Church immediately reform itself.
With help from Dr Google we reviewed the perspectives of other Catholic
leaders regarding Hans Kung which we thought helpful.

This is from the May 13, 2013 issue of America
Magazine, the national Jesuit magazine, which reprints
the original editorial from the May 11, 1963 edition. In
their concluding paragraph they state:
“We do not entirely agree with Fr. Kung, but we would
not think of charging him with talking foolishness.
Every single item he brought up had already been
recommended by a cardinal or bishop for the agenda
of the Second Vatican Council. Maybe he was
imprudent to talk so much. Well, we like that
quotation he took from Pope John's encyclical Pacem
in Terris: ‘One must never confuse error and the
person who errs.’ “

Hans Kung was quite fond of writing open letters that to scold
and irritate his friends in the Catholic hierarchy, so the famed
Catholic author George Weigel penned this humorous open
letter to Hans Kung, excerpts below:

From George Weigel: “A decade and a half
ago, a former colleague of yours among the
younger progressive theologians at Vatican II
told me of a friendly warning he had given
you at the beginning of the Council’s second
session. As this distinguished biblical scholar
remembered those heady days, you had
taken to driving around Rome in a fire-
engine red convertible.”
“This automotive display struck your colleague as imprudent and unnecessarily self-advertising,
given that some of your more adventurous opinions, and your talent for what would later be
called the sound-bite, were already raising eyebrows and hackles in the Roman Curia. So, as the
story was told me, your friend called you aside one day and said, using a French term you both
understood, ‘Hans, you are becoming too evident.’ ”

And George Weigel goes on for a few more paragraphs describing his foolish hubris, and some
uncomplimentary comments on his lunch with Pope Benedict. My blog also quotes a really
scathing two-by-four beat-down by the conservative EWTN magazine. Reactions like these may
have dissuaded Pope Francis from handing an olive branch to Hans Kung.
Much can be learned by reading the works of Hans Kung, and good Catholics should be reassured
that reading Kung in the proper manner can be spiritually beneficial. However, the example of
Hans Kung should remind us that no matter how much we know, we do not know everything; no
matter how brilliant we may be, we cannot understand everything; and no matter how many
degrees hang on our wall, we can and must learn from our brothers in Christ, no matter how
humble. We should never permit our hubris to override our humility as we seek to understand
and discuss the teachings of the Church, and we should always revere Scripture, the teachings first
of the ancient Church Fathers, then succeeding generations of Church Fathers and Teachers,
Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant.
We wish to end on a positive note, This Catholic reflection that I have not seen elsewhere is in the
beginning of one of Hans Kung’s books:

Education without love breeds contrariness;
education with love breeds patience.
Wisdom without love breeds rifts;
wisdom with love breeds understanding.
Friendliness without love breeds hypocrisy;
friendliness with love breeds grace.
Duty without love breeds weariness;
duty with love breed constancy.
Responsibility without love breeds unconcern;
responsibility with love breeds concern.
Righteousness without love breeds hardness;
righteousness with love breeds reliability.

Order without love breeds pettiness;
order with love breeds generosity.
Knowledge without love breeds dogmatism;
knowledge with love breeds trustworthiness.
Power without love breeds violence;
power with love breeds readiness to help.
Honor without love breeds arrogance;
honor with love breeds modesty.
Possessions without love breeds avarice;
possessions with love needs generosity.
Faith without love breeds fanaticism;
faith with love breeds peacemaking.

SOURCES: My main sources are the links I quoted from my blog.
As you can see, personally, over several decades, I have purchased more
books penned by Hans Kung than by any other modern author. I say
modern because St Augustine wrote an equally impressive number of books
and sermons over his lifetime.
Some of these books were so immensely influential that they influenced the
history of the Vatican II Church. Hans Kung’s book, the Council, Reform and
Reunion, was published in the last few years of Vatican II, and influenced the
closing sessions of the Council. This book also gave a great assist in the
gossiping at the coffee stations at the Council, many were jealous as it
seemed that the profits from this book enabled Hans Kung to by his fire
engine red Alfa Romeo sportscar, although some sources say it was a fire
engine red Mercedes sportscar.

Photo of Second Vatican Council

His doctoral thesis, which was later published as his work JUSTIFICATION, argued
that the doctrine of Justification as expressed in the work of the leading Protestant
theologian of the day, the commentary of The Epistle to the Romans by Karl Barth,
was far more similar to the decree on Justification issued by the Council of Trent,
which Vatican II did not alter.
All of these works on Justification can be a challenge to read and understand.
Hans Kung actually asked Karl Barth write an introduction to his book testifying that
he properly understood Barth’s stated views on Justification.

Council of Trent, Elia Naurizio, painted 1633

Vatican II led to a dialogue with the Lutheran Church, and after meeting and
discussing the issues for thirty years, the Pontifical Council and the Lutheran World
Federation issued a Joint Declaration on the doctrine of Justification in 1998, which
is prominently mentioned in Denzinger, the Catholic compilation of decrees.
These decrees are all available on the Vatican website, both in English and in Latin
and Greek, so Denzinger is indeed an optional purchase, it is a bit pricey.

Council of Trent, Elia Naurizio, painted 1633
Denzinger: “The Lutheran churches and
the Roman Catholic Church have
together listened to the good news
proclaimed in the Holy Scriptures. This
common listening, together with
theological conversations of recent
years, had led to a shared understanding
of justification. This encompasses a
consensus in the basic truths; the
differing explanations in particular
statements are compatible with it.”

Our blog on the Council of Trent discusses Justification in greater depth than our
YouTube video on Trent, but in late 2021 we plan to issue a series of blogs and
videos on the related topics of Original Sin, Free Will, and Justification from the
writings of Luther, Erasmus, Trent, Barth and this Lutheran-Catholic joint
declaration.

The book on Infallibility, An Inquiry, on whether the Pope is infallible, is the book
that got Hans Kung into so much hot water with the Vatican Curia, or maybe it was
the accusatory and publicity seeking news conference he hosted, although it was
likely both.
These other books are not all of Hans Kung’s literary output, but they are books I
purchased and mostly read, although some decades previously.
Although he wrote My Struggle for Freedom, his autobiography, in the 2000’s after
his Catholic teaching permission was pulled, it ends with the Second Vatican
Council, so he doesn’t get into the ugly history afterwards, thankfully.
His book, Christianity, seems to me to be a summary of all his tomes on Christianity
and Catholicism released up to that point.
His excellent book on the Great Christian Thinkers covers the life and works of Paul,
Origen, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Schleiermacher, and Barth. Another excellent
book goes into incredible detail about the other main religions of the world.

SOME TITLES BY HANS KUNG:
Infallible? An Inquiry
On Being a Christian
Christianity: Essence, History, and
Future
My Struggle for Freedom,
autobiography ending at Vatican II
Great Christian Thinkers: Paul,
Origen, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther,
Schleiermacher, Barth
Christianity and World Religions

Kung’s books On Being a Christian, The Church, and Does God Exist? are books with
impressive range that each are only a few hundred pages short of a thousand pages.
These books are not padded with boring or unnecessary content.
His slimmer but still focused books on Freud and his Problem With God and Credo,
on the Apostle’s Creed, are both excellent books that I highly recommend.
You just cannot ignore the writings of Hans Kung, they were tremendously
influential for the Vatican II Catholic Church, and despite the revoking of his Catholic
teaching certificate, I pray that I have been successful in demonstrating that good
Catholics can indeed read the works of Hans Kung, with discernment, as always.

HANS KUNG AND OTHER WORKS:
Freud and the problem of God
Credo: The Apostles Creed
The Church
Does God Exist

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you wish, in the description below.
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Can Good Catholics Read the Works of Hans Kung

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