HANS KUNG: BREAKING THROUGH
By Hermann Haring
(trans. John Bowden). SCM. 375 pages (inc. bibliography). £19.95
ISBN 0 334 02739 X
A book on Hans Kung matters. A Roman Catholic theologian, he cannot be ignored by evangelical Protestants for a number of reasons: he has helped create the climate for current Roman Catholic/Protestant negotiations; he contributes significantly in current interfaith dialogue; he is influential among non-Christians; and he has been a clear voice calling for reform within the Roman Catholic denomination.
This book acts as a 'theological biography' of Kung. The details of Kung's life therefore do not emerge here, while details of his work do. The tone is markedly sympathetic, and presents a reasoned defence of Kung's position, although this is largely set in the context of Kung's Roman Catholicism and the question of whether his licence to teach was rightly revoked by the Roman hierarchy. It charts Kung's output from his early work on justification in the 1950s, through his examination of the church in the 1960s to his major accounts of world religions and global questions, largely the focus of his most recent major work. Haring helpfully comments on how Kung works at various points, as well as the underlying theological direction.
