Does God Exist

by Hans Kung

• ISBN13: 9780385135924
• ISBN10: 0385135920
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2013-01-02
• Publisher: Random House Digital Inc.

Summary

Does God exist? The question implies another: Who is God? This book is meant to give an answer to both questions and to give reasons for this answer. Does God exist? Yes or no? Many are at a loss between belief and unbelief; they are undecided, skeptical. They are doubtful about their belief, but they are also doubtful about their doubting. There are still others who are proud of their doubting. Yet there remains a longing for certainty. Certainty? Whether Christians or Jews, believers in God or atheists, the discussion today runs right across old denominations and new ideologies - but the longing for certainty is unquenched. Does God exist? We are putting all our cards on the table here. The answer will be "Yes, God exists", As human beings in the twentieth century, we certainly can reasonably believe in God - even more so in the Christian God - and perhaps even more easily today than a few decades or centuries ago. For, after so many crises, it is surprising how much has been clarified and how many difficulties in regard to belief in God have melted into the Light that no darkness has overcome.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations
The aim of this book
Reason or Faith?	p. 1
I think; do I therefore exist?	p. 3
The ideal of mathematical certainty	p. 3
The fundamental certainty of reason	p. 11
Reason as basis of faith?	p. 15
Shattered unity	p. 26
I believe; do I therefore exist?	p. 42
The relativity of mathematical certainty	p. 42
The fundamental certainty of faith	p. 51
Faith as the basis of reason	p. 59
Tracks of atheism	p. 81
Against rationalism for rationality	p. 93
The epistemological discussion	p. 93
Interim results I: Theses on modern rationality	p. 115
The New Understanding of God	p. 127
God in the world	p. 129
From deism to panentheism	p. 129
Atheism?	p. 137
God in history	p. 144
Phenomenology of spirit	p. 144
System in history	p. 150
Secular and historical God	p. 162
The irremovable difference	p. 162
God in coming to be	p. 169
Interim results II: Theses on the secularity and historicity of God	p. 181
The Challenge of Atheism	p. 189
God - a projection of man?	p. 191
Anthropological atheism	p. 192
Critique of Feuerbach	p. 204
Critique of the critique	p. 210
God - a consolation serving vested interests?	p. 217
Sociopolitical atheism	p. 217
Critique of Marx	p. 241
Critique of the critique	p. 252
God - an infantile illusion?	p. 262
Psychoanalytic atheism	p. 263
Critique of Freud	p. 288
Critique of the critique	p. 307
Interim results III: Theses on atheism	p. 323
Nihilism - Consequence of Atheism	p. 341
The rise of nihilism	p. 343
Critique of culture	p. 343
The counterreligion	p. 369
What is nihilism?	p. 380
Conquest of nihilism?	p. 398
Critique of Nietzsche	p. 399
What Christians can learn	p. 405
What non-Christians can learn	p. 410
Interim results IV: Theses on nihilism	p. 415
Yes to Reality - Alternative to Nihilism	p. 425
The basic attitude	p. 427
Clarifications	p. 427
Reaction to reality	p. 432
Fundamental mistrust or fundamental trust?	p. 442
Confrontation	p. 442
Concretion	p. 453
Explication	p. 460
Yes to God - Alternative to Atheism	p. 479
Multidimensional man	p. 481
Transcendence?	p. 481
The other dimension	p. 489
Theological discussions	p. 509
Catholic or Protestant approach?	p. 509
Controversy on natural theology	p. 518
Proving God?	p. 529
Arguments for and against	p. 529
More than pure reason	p. 536
God exists	p. 552
Introduction	p. 552
God as hypothesis	p. 561
God as reality	p. 568
Consequences	p. 576
Yes to the Christian God	p. 585
The God of the non-Christian religions	p. 587
The many names of the one God	p. 587
The two main types of religious experience	p. 603
The God of the Bible	p. 613
The living God	p. 613
God and his world	p. 627
The God of Jesus Christ	p. 667
God as Father	p. 667
God through Jesus Christ	p. 677
God in the Spirit	p. 696
Notes	p. 703
Index of Names	p. 797
Index	p. 813
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