Orbituary Prof. Dr. Hans Küng

by Birgit Hallmann

Beth Langstaff is still on medical leave for an indefinite period of time. We pray for her recovery.

University:
The University has been on Whitsun vacation. We are all very grateful that the COVID-19 vaccinations are making progress in Germany and also that, just in time for Pentecost, larger groups were able to gather again for service inside the church buildings even if many churches continued to celebrate “Pentecost outdoors."

Orbituary Prof. Dr. Hans Küng (†6. April 2021 in Tübingen)

On 6 April 2021, Tübingen lost one of its most prominent theologians of the post-war period: Hans Küng. Küng died at his home in Tübingen at the age of 93.

Prof. Dr. Hans Küng

Küng was in fact Swiss, not German, and he kept his Swiss accent his whole life. He was born in Sursee in 1928, the son of a shoemaker and a farmer’s daughter. At the age of 12, Hans felt a calling into the Catholic priesthood. After his ordination in 1954, he went on to do a doctoral degree, exploring Karl Barth’s doctrine of justification – an unusual topic for a Catholic theologian. He later recalled one conclusion that he reached through his studies of Barth – that the good news of the justification of the sinner through the grace of God by faith alone provided the foundation of his personal existence.

Hans Küng was called to Tübingen in 1960, becoming professor of fundamental theology at the age of 32. Together with Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), he served as an adviser to the Second Vatican Council – he and Ratzinger were jokingly called the “teenager theologians” because they were so much younger than the rest of those attending. In the 1970s, Kung’s teachings – particularly the way in which he challenged the Roman Catholic doctrine of infallibility – led to conflict and confrontation with the Vatican. In 1979, the Catholic bishops in Germany stripped Küng of his teaching license (missio canonica), which meant that he could not remain a member of the Catholic faculty at the University of Tübingen.

Küng continued to lead his Institute of Ecumenical Research – now independent of the Catholic faculty –and to teach, to write, and to travel all over the world. In the 1990s, Küng founded the Global Ethic Project, which focused on dialogue between world religions (“No peace among nations without peace among religions…No peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions”) and on a “world ethic” which stressed principles such as respect for all human life (“You shall not kill.”) and fair and righteous action (“You shall not steal.”). The Global Ethic Foundation, which grew out of this project, is one of our neighbours in Hintere Grabenstrasse.

“Over the past ten years, I have included Küng’s writings (such as his 2012 book, Jesus) and interviews in various Theological German classes. Students typically express their surprise when they encounter Küng—he is not at all what they are expecting. Even if we did not agree with Küng’s conclusions, he provoked us to think about difficult questions: Who was/is Jesus Christ? How should believers approach end-of-life issues? Is it possible for us as Christians to find common ground with other religions?” (Beth Langstaff)

Even as Hans Küng called for dialogue between world religions, he was unequivocal in his own commitment to the Christian faith. In a 2011 interview with Die Zeit, he stated that “Christianity is the lived-out community of faith, of hope, and of love, as we follow Christ [lit. in discipleship to Christ].” He closed a 1999 lecture (“Der lange Weg”) with his own personal declaration of faith that he was a follower not of the Buddha or Muhammed or Confucius, but of Jesus Christ:

“As a disciple of Christ,
the human being in today’s world
can truly and humanely live, act, suffer and die:
in good times and in bad, in life and in death, being held by God
and helping others."

“In der Nachfolge Jesu Christi

kann der Mensch in der Welt von heute

wahrhaft menschlich leben, handeln, leiden und sterben:

in Glück und Unglück, Leben und Tod gehalten von Gott

und hilfreich den Menschen."

See: https://www.global-ethic.org; Stiftung Weltethos für interkulturelle und interreligiöse Forschung, Bildung und Begegnung; http://www.weltethos.org/1-pdf/40-literatur/deu/der_lange_weg.pdf