This is the second volume of riveting memoirs from Hans Kung, the leading - and controversial - theologian. Hans Kung has been a major influence on post-war Christianity by any reckoning. A peritus for the Second Vatican Council, he then went on to publish a number of controversial books including "Infallible?", which enraged the Vatican and caused him to be unceremoniously dumped from his official teaching position at the University of Tubingen. However, he remains a respected priest in good standing with his bishop. During all the upheavals that the Catholic Church has gone through in recent decades, Kung was always there with a public comment. He turned from enfant terrible to bete noire. However his world influence has been great. Whether speaking at The United Nations or consorting with politicians and religious leaders, he is always listened to with respect and enthusiasm. A string of recent books has added to the reputation - notably "On Being a Christian" and "Does God Exist?". In these thrilling memoirs Kung gives his personal account of all these struggles and ambitions. The result is a book of major importance for any student of the Church in the 20th Century. This second volume covers the period following the close of the Second Vatican Council right up to the present day....

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....

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....