The Catholic Church: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles) - Softcover

Kung, Hans

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812967623 ISBN 13: 9780812967623

Publisher: Random House Group, 2003

Synopsis

In this extraordinary book, the controversial and profoundly influential Hans Küng chronicles the Roman Catholic Church's role as a world power throughout history. Along the way, he examines the great schisms--between East and West, and Catholic and Protestant--as well as the evolving role of the papacy, the stories of the great reforming popes, and the expansion of a global church infrastructure. The book concludes with a searching assessment of how the Catholic faith will confront the immense challenges posed in the new millennium by those seeking reform of traditional strictures.

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: Random House Group
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0812967623
• ISBN 13: 9780812967623
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272