Hans Küng (2009)

Hans Küng (born March 19, 1928, in Sursee, Canton of Lucerne) is a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and prolific author. Since 1995 he has been President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic (Stiftung Weltethos). Küng is "a Catholic priest in good standing",^[1] but the Vatican has rescinded his authority to teach Catholic theology. He had to leave the Catholic faculty, but remained at the University of Tübingen as a professor of ecumenical theology, serving as an emeritus professor since 1996. Although Küng is not officially allowed to teach Catholic theology, neither his bishop nor the Holy See have revoked his priestly faculties.

Life and work[link]

Küng studied theology and philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and was ordained in 1954. He continued his education in various European cities, including the Sorbonne.

In 1960, he was appointed professor of theology at Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany. Like his colleague Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), in 1962 he was appointed peritus by Pope John XXIII, serving as an expert theological advisor to members of the Second Vatican Council until its conclusion in 1965. At Küng's instigation, the Catholic faculty at Tübingen appointed Ratzinger as professor of dogmatics. However, due to the 1968 students revolt, Ratzinger moved to the University of Regensburg, ending cooperation between the two.

In a 1963 tour of the United States, Küng gave the lecture "The Church and Freedom", receiving an interdict from the Catholic University of America but an honorary doctorate from St. Louis University. He accepted an invitation to visit John F. Kennedy at the White House.^[2]

Küng's doctoral thesis, Justification. La doctrine de Karl Barth et une réflexion catholique, was finally published in English in 1964. It located a number of areas of agreement between Barthian and Catholic theologies of justification, concluding that the differences were not fundamental and did not warrant a division in the Church. (The book included a letter from Karl Barth, attesting that he agreed with Küng's representation of his theology.) In this book Küng argued that Barth, like Martin Luther, overreacted against the Catholic Church, which despite its imperfections has been and remains the body of Christ.^[3]

In the late 1960s, he became the first major Roman Catholic theologian since the late 19th century Old Catholic Church schism to publicly reject the doctrine of papal infallibility, in particular in his book Infallible? An Inquiry (1971). Consequently, on December 18, 1979, he was stripped of his missio canonica, his licence to teach as a Roman Catholic theologian, but carried on teaching as a tenured professor of ecumenical theology at the University of Tübingen until his retirement (Emeritierung) in 1996. To this day he remains a persistent critic of papal infallibility, which he claims is man-made (and thus reversible) rather than instituted by God. He was not excommunicated ferendae sententiae.

For three months in 1981, he was guest professor at the University of Chicago. During this visit to America he was invited to only one Catholic institution, the University of Notre Dame. He appeared on the Phil Donahue Show.^[4] In October 1986, he participated in the Third Buddhist-Christian Theological Encounter held at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.^[5]

In the early 1990s, Küng initiated a project called Weltethos (Global Ethic), which is an attempt at describing what the world's religions have in common (rather than what separates them) and at drawing up a minimal code of rules of behaviour everyone can accept. His vision of a global ethic was embodied in the document for which he wrote the initial draft, Towards a Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration. This Declaration was signed at the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions by religious and spiritual leaders from around the world. Later Küng's project would culminate in the UN's Dialogue Among Civilizations to which Küng was assigned as one of 19 "eminent persons." Even though it was completed shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 (in September 2001), it was not covered in the U.S. media, about which Küng complained.^[6][7][8]

In March 1991, he gave a talk titled "No Peace Among Nations until Peace Among the Religions" at UCSD's Price Center. He visited the nearby Beth El synagogue and spoke there on modern German-Jewish relations.^[9]

In 1998, he published Dying with Dignity, co-written with Walter Jens, in which he affirms acceptance of euthanasia from a Christian viewpoint.

In 2005, Küng published a critical article in Italy and Germany on The failures of Pope Wojtyla. Küng argued that the world had expected a period of conversion, reform, and dialogue; but instead politically John Paul II offered a restoration of the pre-Vatican II status quo—thus blocking reform and inter-church dialogue and reasserting the absolute dominion of Rome.

This Papacy has repeatedly declared its fidelity to Vatican II, in order to then betray it for reasons of political expediency. Council terms such as modernization, dialogue, and ecumenicalism have been replaced by emphasis on restoration, mastery, and obedience. The criteria for the nomination of Bishops is not at all in the spirit of the Gospel... Pastoral politics has allowed the moral and intellectual level of the episcopate to slip to dangerous levels. A mediocre, rigid, and more conservative episcopate will be the lasting legacy of this papacy.

On September 26, 2005, he had a friendly discussion about Catholic theology over dinner with Pope Benedict XVI, surprising some observers.^[10]

Nevertheless, in a 2009 interview with Le Monde, Küng deeply criticised the lifting of the excommunications on the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X. At the same time, he made criticisms of the Pope's theology, saying it remained the same as that of the council of Nicea held in 325. The interview drew a rebuke from Cardinal Angelo Sodano.^[11]

Based on Studium Generale lectures at Tübingen University, his latest publication, Der Anfang aller Dinge (The beginning of all things), discusses the relationship between science and religion. In an analysis spanning from quantum physics to neuroscience, he comments on the current debate about evolution in the United States, dismissing those opposed to the teaching of evolution as "naive [and] un-enlightened."

In his recent book Was ich glaube (Piper Verlag, 2010), he describes his own personal relationship with nature, how he learned to observe correctly, drawing strength from God’s creation without falling victim to a false and fanatic love of nature.

In April 2010, he published in several newspapers an open letter^[12] to all Catholic bishops. In the letter he criticized Pope Benedict's handling of liturgical, collegial and inter-religious issues and also the sexual abuse scandals that have engulfed the Catholic Church. In the letter, he called on bishops to consider six proposals, ranging from speaking up and working on regional solutions to calling for another Vatican council.

He is a signatary of Church 2011, a German-language memorandum promulgated by Catholic theology professors.^[13]

Awards[link]

• 1991 Swiss culture prize;
• 1992 Karl Barth prize;
• 1998 Theodor Heuss Foundation prize;
• 1998 Interfaith gold medallion from the International Council of Christianity and Judaism, London;
• 1999 Federation of Lutheran cities prize;
• 2000 GLOBArt Award;
• 2001 Planetary Consciousness Prize from the Club of Budapest;
• 2003 Grand Order of Merit with star
• 2004 German Druiden medal from the Weltethos Foundation
• 2005 Niwano Peace Prize
• 2005 Baden-Wuerttemberg medal
• 2006 Lew Kopelew prize
• 2007 German freemasonry cultural prize
• 2007 Honorary Citizen of City of Tübingen
• 2008 Honour for civil courage by the circle of friends Heinrich Heine (Düsseldorf)
• 2008 Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold from the German Society for the United Nations, for "outstanding earnings/services to peace and people communication, in particular for his exemplary employment for humanity, tolerance and the dialogue between the large world religions".
• 2009 Abraham Geiger prize from the Abraham-Geiger-Kolleg at the University of Potsdam.

See also[link]

• Parliament of the World's Religions
• Towards a Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration

Writings[link]

English translations:

• Justification: The Doctrine of Karl Barth and a Catholic Reflection, (org. 1964), (40th Ann. Ed. 2004), Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 0-664-22446-6
• 'The Council and Reunion' (1960), London: Sheed and Ward
• 'Structures of the Church' (1962), New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons
• 'The Living Church: Reflections on the Second Vatican Council' (1963), London: Sheed and Ward
• 'The Church' (1967), London: Burns and Oates
• Infallible? An Inquiry, (1971) ISBN 0-385-18483-2
• Why Priests? (1971)
• 'What must remain in the Church' (1973), London: Collins
• 'On Being a Christian', (1974)
• Signposts for the Future: Contemporary Issues facing the Church (1978), (ISBN 0-3851-3151-8), 204 pages
• Freud and the Problem of God: Enlarged Edition, Edward Quinn (translator), (ISBN 0-3000-4723-1), 126 pages, Yale University Press
• Does God Exist? An Answer For Today (1980) (ISBN 0-8245-1119-0)
• Christianity and the world religions: paths of dialogue with Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism (1986) ISBN 0-385-19471-4
• Christianity and Chinese Religions (with Julia Ching, 1988) (ISBN 0-334-02545-1)
• Art and the question of Meaning (1980, translated 1981) E. Quinn, Crossroads New York (ISBN-0-8245-0016-4)
• The Incarnation of God: An Introduction to Hegel's Theological Thought as Prolegomena to a Future Christology, J. R. Stephenson (translator), (ISBN-10 0567093522), 601 pages, Crossroad Publishing Company
• Theology for the Third Millennium: An Ecumenical View (1990) (Translated by Peter Heinegg) (ISBN 0-3854-1125-1)
• Judaism: Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (1992), New York: Crossroad (ISBN 0-8264-0788-9)
• Great Christian Thinkers (1994) ISBN 0-8264-0848-6
• Christianity : Its Essence and History (1995) (ISBN 0334025710)
• A Global Ethic for Global Politics and Economics (1997) (ISBN 0-334-02686-5)
• Dying with Dignity (1998), co-written with Walter Jens
• The Catholic Church (2001) (ISBN 0-6796-4092-4)
• My Struggle for Freedom: Memoirs (2003), New York, London: Continuum (ISBN 0-8264-7021-1)
• Why I Am Still a Christian (2006) (ISBN 978-0826476982)
• The Beginning of All Things - Science and Religion (2007) (ISBN 978-0802807632)
• Islam: Past, Present and Future (2007) (ISBN 978-1-85168-377-2)
• Disputed Truth: Memoirs II (2008) New York: Continuum (ISBN 9780826499103)

About[link]

• Hans Küng his work and his way, Hans Küng, Hermann Häring, Karl-Josef Kuschel, Robert Nowell, Margret Gentner (1979) (ISBN 0-3851-5852-1)
• The New Inquisition?: The Case of Edward Schillebeeckx and Hans Küng, Peter Hebblethwaite, (ISBN 0-0606-3795-1)
• Hans Küng (Makers of the Modern Theological Mind Series), John J. Kiwiet, Bob E. Patterson (Series Ed.) (1985) (ISBN 0-8499-2954-7)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Hans Küng

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hans Küng

• Works by or about Hans Küng in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• [1] Videos of lectures from Hans Küng (German), University Tuebingen

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2009)

Harald Lesch

Harald Lesch (born 28. July 1960 in Gießen, Hesse) is a German physicist, astronomer, natural philosopher, author, television presenter, professor of physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and professor of natural philosophy at the Munich University of Philosophy.

Education[link]

After completing secondary school in 1978 at the Theo-Koch-Schule in Grünberg, Hesse, Lesch studied physics at the University of Giessen, then at the University of Bonn, where he completed his doctoral degree in 1987 and worked at the Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy. From 1988 to 1991 he was a research assistant at the state observatory at Heidelberg-Königstuhl. In 1992 he was a visiting professor at the University of Toronto. In 1994 he was habilitated at the University of Bonn.

Work/research[link]

Lesch during a public lecture in 2007

Since 1995 Lesch has been a professor of theoretical astrophysics at the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the LMU Munich.^[1] Additionally, he teaches natural philosophy at the University for Philosophy in Munich. His main areas of research are cosmic plasma physics, black holes, and neutron stars. He is the expert on astrophysics in the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (German Research Society) and a member of the Astronomische Gesellschaft (Astronomical Society). He is also a textbook author.

Lesch has made television appearances for the longstanding, self-presented production of the channel BR-alpha: alpha-Centauri, Lesch & Co., Denker des Abendlandes (Thinkers of the Western World), and Alpha bis Omega (From Alpha to Omega). He also presented shorter television series. His presentations attempt to make complex physical or philosophical issues more accessible to the public. In 2005 he was awarded the Communicator Prize by the DFG and the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Foundation for German Scholarship) for his television appearances and publications. To honor his work on making scientific findings understandable to the broad public, the Naturforschende Gesellschaft zu Emden (nature research society) awarded him an honorary membership on March 15, 2011.

Television appearances[link]

For many years, Lesch has presented a series of television series for the channel BR-alpha, beginning with alpha-Centauri, in which he is to be seen since 1998. In Lesch & Co. and Denker des Abendlandes, he converses with the philosophy professor Wilhelm Vossenkuhl about philosophical topics. Alpha bis Omega deals with contradiction and consistency of religion and natural science, through conversations between Lesch and the Catholic theologist Thomas Schwartz.

In celebration of the Year of Einstein 2005, BR-alpha aired the 8-part series The Physics of Albert Einstein, where in each episode, one single scientific finding of Einstein was introduced by Lesch, who explained its significance. Starting in August 2007, the 16-part program The 4 Elements was aired weekly, which deals with the structure of the world, and in addition to scientific aspects, also handles cultural-historical aspects. Furthermore, Lesch can also be seen in the series LeschZug (LeschTrain), which is filmed in an underground train and in which he declares his opinion on current topics.

For the Pay-TV channel Syfy he differentiates scientifically based and fictional components of Star Trek in the series Star Trek – Science vs. Fiction. From April to the end of 2007, Lesch moderated the weekly 5-minute program sci_xpert for this channel, which dealt with viewer questions, which mostly had to do with feasibility of science fiction concepts (such as "How realistic are the huge spaceships from Independence Day?"), but which also addressed purely scientific topics (for example "What is gravity?"), which were handled in the tradition of alpha-Centauri. There were a total of 35 episodes.

Since September 2008 Lesch has been presenting the ZDF scholarly magazine Abenteuer Forschung (Adventures in Research). His predecessor was Joachim Bublath, who presented the show for many years.

At the start of the "International Year of Astronomy 2009", Lesch moderated in ZDF the 2½ hour special “How Light Was Born: the Long Night with Harald Lesch”, in which he, between short documentary films, led conversations with the cabaret artist and hobby-philosopher Christoph Süß, the physics professor Günther Hasinger, and the theology professor Thomas Schwartz.

Since 2010, Lesch presents the show "Lesch's Kosmos", a 15 minute programme on the German documentary channel ZDFneo that deals with issues from various scientific fields. ^[2]

Awards[link]

• 1988 Otto-Hahn-Medallion from the Max-Planck-Society (for the dissertation “Nonlinear Plasma Processes in Active Galactic Cores)
• 1994 Bennigsen-Foerder-Prize from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (EUR 75,000): “Heating of Galactic High Speed Clouds through Magnetic Reconnection”
• 2004 Prize for Scientific Journalism from the Grüter-Foundation (EUR 10,000)
• 2005 Communicator-Prize (EUR 50,000)
• 2005 Medallion for Natural Science Journalism from the German Physical Society
• 2009 Medallion “Bene Merenti de Astronomia Norimbergensi” in Gold from the Nuremberg Astronomical Society.

Selected works[link]

Harald Lesch and Jörn Müller[link]

• Cosmology for Pedestrians. A Journey through the Universe.
• Big Bang, Act Two. On the Trail of Life in Space.
• Cosmology for Bright Heads. The Dark Side of the Universe.
• Do You Know How Many Stars There Are? How Light is Born.

Harald Lesch and the Quot-Team[link]

• Physics for the Vest Pocket
• Quantum Mechanics for the Vest Pocket

Harald Lesch and Harald Zaun[link]

• The Shortest History of all of Life

References[link]