On Being a Christian

by Hans Kung

Overview

An international bestseller by one of this century's most prominent theologians, On Being a Christian is a work of exhaustive scholarship, born of the author's passionate belief in Jesus Christ as the center of existence. Hans Kung here assesses the impact of other world religions, humanism, science, technology, and political revolutions; and sifting through the theological controversies within the Christian community itself, he affirms the vitality and uniqueness of Christianity by tracing it back to its roots — the reality of the historical Christ.

But more than history or theology, On Being a Christian reexamines what it means to be a Christian today: the role of Christian ethics in a social and political context, the relationship between Christians and Jews, the organization of a community of believers, and practical suggestions for dealing with personal crises of faith. This Image Books edition will reach even larger segments of the population for whom the book was written. Kung defines his audience as those: who do not believe, but nevertheless seriously inquire; who did believe, but are not satisfied with their unbelief; who do believe, but feel insecure in their faith; who are at a loss, between belief and unbelief; who are skeptical, both about their convictions and about their doubts; who are Christians and atheists, Gnostics and agnostics, pietists and positivists, lukewarm and zealous Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox.

A landmark work, for both scholars and educated laity, On Being a Christian has become a small "Summa" of the Christian faith. "This is not another gospel," Kung contends, "but the same ancient gospel rediscovered for today!"

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780385192866
Publisher:	The Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/02/1984
Edition description:	Complete & Unabridged
Pages:	720
Sales rank:	722,495
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.68(d)

About the Author

Hans Kung is a prominent Catholic Theologian, respected by thinkers of all denominations. He is well known around the world and has been Professor of Dogmatic and Ecumenical Studies at the University of Tubingen, Germany, as well as Visiting Professor at Chicago University and at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He holds honorary degrees from several American universities and has lectured at various universities in Europe, America, and Asia.

Table of Contents

	List of Abbreviations	15
	Translator's Foreword	17
	Those for whom this book is written	19
A.	The Horizon	23
I.	The Challenge of Modern Humanisms	25
1.	Turning to man	26
	Secular world	26
	Opening out of the Churches	28
2.	Christianity for sale?	31
	Has Christianity lost its soul?	31
	No return	35
3.	No abandonment of hope	37
	Humanity through technological evolution?	38
	Humanity through politico-social revolution?	43
	Between nostalgia and reformism	51
II.	The Other Dimension	57
1.	Approach to God	57
	Transcendence?	57
	The future of religion	60
	Proofs of God?	64
	More than pure reason	68
2.	The reality of God	69
	The hypothesis	70
	Reality	73
	Ambiguity of the concept of God	79
	The task of theology	83
III.	The Challenge of the World Religions	89
1.	Salvation outside the Church	89
	Revalued religions	89
	Wealth of the religions	91
2.	Bewildering consequences	97
	Anonymous Christianity?	97
	Superior ignorance?	99
3.	Challenge on both sides	100
	No leveling down	100
	Helpful diagnosis	104
4.	Not exclusiveness, but uniqueness	110
	Christian existence as critical catalyst	110
	Common quest for truth	112
B.	The Distinction	117
I.	What Is Special to Christianity?	119
1.	The Christ	119
	Dangerous memory	119
	Taking concepts at their face value	122
2.	Which Christ?	126
	The Christ of piety?	126
	The Christ of dogma?	129
	The Christ of the enthusiasts?	133
	The Christ of literature?	138
II.	The Real Christ	145
1.	Not a myth	145
	In time and place	146
	Uncertainties	149
2.	The documents	150
	More than a biography	150
	Committed testimonies	153
3.	History and faith's certainty	155
	Counterquestions about Jesus	156
	Justifiable faith	161
	Historical criticism--an aid to faith?	163
III.	Christianity and Judaism	166
1.	The sufferings of the past	166
	Jesus the Jew	167
	A history of blood and tears	168
2.	Future possibilities	169
	Increasing understanding	169
	Diseussion about Jesus?	172
C.	The Program	175
I.	The Social Context	177
1.	Establishment?	177
	The religio-political system	177
	Neither priest nor theologian	178
	Not with the rulers	179
	Radical change	180
2.	Revolution?	183
	The revolutionary movement	183
	Hope of a liberator	185
	Not a social revolutionary	187
	Non-violent revolution	189
3.	Emigration?	192
	Apolitical radicalism	192
	Monasticism	193
	Not a religious	195
	Not for the elite, but for all	200
4.	Compromise?	201
	The devout	202
	Moral compromise	204
	Not a pious legalist	206
	Against self-righteousness	209
	Provocative on all sides	211
II.	God's Cause	214
1.	The Center	214
	God's kingdom	214
	Apocalyptic horizon	216
	Demythologizing inevitable	218
	Between present and future	220
	God is ahead	223
2.	Miracles?	226
	Concealing embarrassment	226
	What really happened	229
	What was transmitted	231
	Christian science	233
	Indications, not proofs	236
3.	The supreme norm	238
	No natural law	238
	No revealed law	240
	God's will instead of legalism	241
	The meaning of the Sermon on the Mount	244
III.	Man's Cause	249
1.	Humanization of man	249
	The changed awareness	249
	What God wills	251
	Relativized traditions, institutions, hierarchs	252
2.	Action	255
	Both God and man	255
	The person who needs me here and now	256
	Even enemies	258
	True radicalism	262
3.	Solidarity	265
	Partisan for the handicapped	266
	Which poor?	267
	The moral failures	271
	The law of grace	273
IV.	The Conflict	278
1.	The decision	278
	Those who were for him	278
	A Church?	283
	Without office or dignity	286
	The advocate	291
2.	The debate on God	295
	Not a new God	295
	The God with a human face	300
	The God with qualities	304
	Revolution in the understanding of God	309
	Not an obvious form of address	314
3.	The end	318
	In face of death	319
	A last meal	322
	Stages	325
	Why?	334
	In vain?	339
V.	The New Life	343
1.	The beginning	343
	Introduction	343
	Clarifications	348
	The ultimate reality	356
	Legends?	361
	Origin of faith	370
2.	The criterion	381
	Justified	381
	Honorific titles	384
	Representation	389
	The definitive standard	392
3.	The ultimate distinction	396
	Revaluation	396
	Beyond fanaticism and rigidity	399
	By faith alone	402
	No other cause	406
VI.	Interpretations	411
1.	Discriminating interpretation	411
	Limits to demythologization	412
	Truth is not simply facticity	415
	Narrative presentation and critical reflection	416
2.	Interpretations of death	419
	No uniform theory	419
	Slain for us	421
	Sacrifice?	424
	God and suffering	428
3.	Interpretations of the origin	436
	Become man	436
	Deification or humanization?	440
	True God and true man	444
	Born of a woman	450
	Mary	457
VII.	Community of Faith	463
1.	Inspired and inspiring word	463
	Inspiration?	463
	Word of God?	466
2.	The one Spirit	468
	Unholy and holy Spirit	468
	Trinity	472
3.	The pluriform Church	478
	Assembly, congregation, Church	478
	Community in liberty, equality, fraternity	481
	Charisms, offices, ministries	484
	The diverse constitutions	488
	A Petrine ministry?	494
4.	The great mandate	502
	Catholic-Protestant	502
	Provisional Church	504
	Serving Church	505
	Guilty Church	507
	Determined Church	508
D.	Practice	511
I.	The Practice of the Church	514
1.	Decision for faith	514
	A personal decision	514
	Criticism of the Church	517
2.	Decision for the Church	521
	Why stay?	522
	Practical suggestions	525
	Against discouragement	527
	Why can we hope?	529
II.	Being Human and Being Christian	530
1.	Norms of the human	530
	Human autonomy	531
	Man's theonomy	534
	The unconditioned in the conditioned	536
	Uncertainty of norms	539
2.	The criterion for deciding what is Christian	540
	Specifically Christian norms?	541
	Concrete person instead of abstract principle	544
	The distinctive Christian element in ethics	549
	The basic model	551
III.	Being Christian as Being Radically Human	554
1.	Social relevance	554
	No political short cuts	555
	Social consequences	558
	Commitment to liberation	562
	No uncritical identifications	565
2.	Coping with the negative side	570
	Misused cross	571
	Misunderstood cross	573
	Understood cross	576
3.	Liberated for freedom	581
	Justification or social justice?	581
	What is not ultimately important	583
	What is ultimately important	586
4.	Suggestions	590
	Freedom in the legal order	590
	Freedom in the struggle for power	593
	Freedom from the pressure of consumption	595
	Freedom to serve	598
	Human existence transfigured in Christian existence	601
	Basic Theological Literature	603
	Notes
	Section A	607
	Section B	620
	Section C	630
	Section D	678
	Index	688