Theology Revived
Kueng, Hans
Books Briefly Theology Revived DOES GOD EXIST? by Hans Kueng (Doubleday. 702 pp. $17.50). "The relations which exist between man and his Maker, and the duties resulting from those relations,...
...in essence he concludes (in contradiction of Aquinas) that neither the existence nor the nonexistence of God can be demonstrated 6y reason, but "whoever denies God does not know why ultimately he trusts reality...
...Theology has long been in the Western doldrums...
...Kueng is spectacular on account of his removal by the Vatican from the Catholic chair at the University of Tuebingen because of his fiercely indepen-dent analysis of such sacred assumptions as Papal infallibility, the Resurrection, the Immaculate Conception, and the literal divinity of Jesus...
...it is tremen-dous in every way, including as it does a thorough examination of the theology of every great Western thinker since Des-cartes and a critical consideration of the classic positions on God's existence...
...But the past ten years have seen a modest religious re-vival—not exclusively in fundamentalism— and coming along behind the religious, a theological revival...
...God is dead" is as dead as wide lapels and Woodstock...
...Kueng's own answer to his central question is not a simple one...
...And now we have the masterpiece of the most spectacular and infiuential theologian in Christendom today, Hans Kueng of Switz-erland and Germany...
...The relations which exist between man and his Maker, and the duties resulting from those relations, are the most interesting and important to every human be-ing...
...Two centuries after Jefferson wrote those words those relations and du-ties may still be most important...
...Does God Existl is a book to be read in, not to be read...
...they are not most interesting...
Vol. 45 • September 1981 • No. 9
