Pro-Soviet throwback
Martin, Benjamin
The Kung affair TALENT TO SPARE? REFLECTIONS OF A SOMETIME CRITIC AMONG THE REASONS given for the Vatican's withdrawal of Professor Hans Kiing's authorization to teach as a Catholic theologian...
...And he is of the indisputably correct opinion that questions will not be answered by silence and prohibitions...
...HEINRICH FRIES (Father Heinrich Fries is emeritus Professor of Catholic Dogmatic Theology and Director of the Ecumenical Institute at the University of Munich...
...2. Through word and writing Kung reaches people in general and Christians who are situated on the fringes of the churches, who have distanced themselves from the Christian faith, and who take a critical stance toward the church—people who hardly take notice of church proclamations...
...Will they not be confused and dismayed...
...Is Kung here not performing a pastoral and missionary service—as a witness of the faith...
...Can the Catholic church do this, committed as it is since Vatican II—the greatest event in its recent history—to the task of dialogue, encounter, and open approach to humanity, to the whole world...
...3. The open, discomforting, and critical questions which Kung poses—to be sure, at times aggressively and importunately—were not invented by him...
...Nonetheless I do wonder whether the conclusions drawn were "unavoidable," and whether "there was no longer any other way out," especially since the furor around Kung had died down...
...Has Kung not given many the courage to believe in God and to be a Christian...
...Has he not provided many motives and arguments for "why one should remain in the church...
...Translated by Leonard Swidler, Temple University, Philadelphia...
...Personally, I do not wish to defend or justify all the utterances made or steps taken by Hans Kung—he is a controversial, discomforting, and provocative theologian...
...How will all these people react to the measures taken against Kung...
...Vatican I divides the church of the East from the church of the West to this very day...
...Can one dismiss this question with the remark sometimes heard: let them go, good riddance...
...They have been strengthened in their faith and have found a new and credible approach to its understanding and assimilation...
...14 March 1980: 133...
...And is the same church so prodigally rich in talent and theologians whose voices are heard throughout the whole world that it can without hesitation afford to dispense with Hans Kung...
...6. Has the church become so narrow and anxiety-ridden that—despite many justified criticisms—it can no longer accept the theologian Hans Kung as a theologian...
...When such people read King's books—how many is indicated by the hundreds of thousands of copies printed—they obviously do not do so in order to take final leave of their faith and church, but rather to find a way to reestablish contact with the reality of their faith...
...4. Should one be glad or irritated that, for example, Kung gave a lecture on the question of God in Peking, that his book Does God Exist...
...REFLECTIONS OF A SOMETIME CRITIC AMONG THE REASONS given for the Vatican's withdrawal of Professor Hans Kiing's authorization to teach as a Catholic theologian two are particularly mentioned: That his writings and teaching "cause confusion among the faithful" and that they "depart from the full integrity of Catholic teaching...
...1. Alongside the faithful who feel themselves made uneasy by Kung, one cannot overlook the extremely large number of those who have found an authentic support to their faith in Kiing's books, especially On Being a Christian and Does God Exist...
...he simply calls existing problems by their names...
...These two books have become a genuine and precious treasure for many pastors, religious educators, and preachers—that is especially true if one reads what is written instead of constantly looking for what is missing...
...5. Kung's interpretation of the infallibility of the church's teaching office as it was formulated at Vatican I in 1870 has been particularly criticized...
...I myself wrote an essay critical of Kung's interpretation in the volume edited by Karl Rahner on the problem of infallibility...
...Nevertheless, the following should be noted: if the initiative of Pope John Paul II should lead to intensive conversations with the Orthodox, if the pope hopes that unity with the churches of the East will come to pass by the beginning of the next millennium, then the themes which were formulated at Vatican I will have to undergo an inquiry even more thoroughgoing than Kung's...
...is translated, read, and discussed in Russia—and not to strengthen atheism, but to treat it critically and to open doors to faith...
Vol. 107 • March 1980 • No. 5
