Critical Essay | Critical Review by Theodore C. Ross, S. J.

Critical Review by Theodore C. Ross, S. J.

SOURCE: “Küng's Synthesis,” in Christian Century, Vol. 112, No. 37, December 20-27, 1995, pp. 1250-51.

Ross is a lecturer in historical theology at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago and Mundelein Seminary of the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois. In the following review, he asserts that Küng's Christology in Christianity derives from his desire to reconcile Christianity with Judaism and Islam.

Hans Küng is both predictable and unpredictable. He is scholarly yet populist, fascinating yet shocking, hopeful yet desperate. And his latest book[, Christianity: Essence, History, and Future,] gives every indication of being one more Küng battlefield. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and his Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will be neither pleased nor amused. The very first page sets the book's tone and direction: “Don't many people even in our ‘Christian’ countries and especially Catholic countries associate Christianity with an institutional church greedy for...
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