On Being a Christian

by Kung, Hans

• ISBN13: 9780385192866
• ISBN10: 038519286X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1984-03-01
• Publisher: Image Books

Summary

Set in his fictional Wessex countryside in southwest England, Far from the Madding Crowd was Thomas Hardy's breakthrough work. Though it was first published anonymously in 1874, the quick and tremendous success of Far from the Madding Crowd persuaded Hardy to give up his first profession, architecture, to concentrate on writing fiction.

Author Biography

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