The Catholic Church: A Short History - Hardcover

Küng, Hans

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297646389 ISBN 13: 9780297646389

Publisher: Orion, 2001

Synopsis

Hans Küng describes the history of the Roman Catholic Church from its origins in St Paul¿s Rome, through the disputes of the medieval era to the modern world. He examines the historic tension in the Church between pluralism and exclusivity; how the role of the Pope has changed; the motivations of the great reforming pontiffs; the evolving functions of the bishops and cardinals; the story of church¿s enthusiasm for missionary activity; the origins of the Marian cult; and how the shock waves of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation can still be felt today. The book concludes with a searching assessment of how the Catholic faith confronts the immense challenges ¿ from science, from the empowerment of women, from those seeking reform of the Church¿s strictures against abortion and contraception ¿ in the new millennium. Though short, this is a major book by a controversial and profoundly influential thinker.

About this title

Review:

Hans Küng is well known as the scholarly enfant terrible of the Catholic Church. This "turbulent priest" was active in the Second Vatican Council and made his name questioning traditional church doctrines as papal infallibility. In 1979, amidst a great furore, the Vatican censured his writings as being inconsistent with the teaching of the Catholic Church.

It's not surprising then, that Küng's latest book is not so much a 'short history' of the Catholic Church as a justification of his disagreements with its hierarchy, projected back through time. In eight major sections Küng chronicles the early days of Christianity, then takes us through the church's relationship with the Roman Empire, charting the rise of the papacy, the full flowering of its power in the Middle Ages and its eventual corruption. He then goes on to outline the papacy's decline in the face of the Reformation and modernism, and finishes with an extended criticism of the modern papacy. Küng outlines the key events in the European history of the Catholic Church, but he never mentions the Church outside Europe. In addition, the whole history is angled to support his anti-papal, de-centralist agenda.

While one may lament such a subjective and narrow approach, Küng should be praised for his desire that the Catholic Church adapt to modern needs, and for his call that she be faithful to the essential principles of the Christian faith. Standing on its own The Catholic Church is a highly subjective and incomplete offering, but read with other excellent histories of the papacy and Christianity, such as Eamonn Duffy's Saints and Sinners, Chidester's Christianity, and Bokenkotter's Concise History of the Catholic Church it provides an interesting counterpoint. --Dwight Longenecker

Review:

"This much-needed book tells the truth about the Catholic past for the sake of the church's future." --James Carroll

"Hans Küng has done more to shape contemporary Catholic hope than anyone else, and with The Catholic Church he does it again." --James Carroll, author of Constantine's Sword

"One of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century, Hans Küng . . . is one of the world's great mavericks. . . . Indeed, he was once called 'the greatest threat to the Catholic Church since Martin Luther.'" --The Independent (London)

"A well-told, sweeping, and often incisive portrait." --Kirkus Reviews

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0297646389
• ISBN 13: 9780297646389
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 231