On Being a Christian
, by Kung, Hans
- ISBN: 9780385192866 | 038519286X
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 3/1/1984
Set in his fictional Wessex countryside in southwest England, Far from the Madding Crowd was Thomas Hardy's breakthrough work. Though it was first published anonymously in 1874, the quick and tremendous success of Far from the Madding Crowd persuaded Hardy to give up his first profession, architecture, to concentrate on writing fiction.
Hans Kung is a prominent Catholic Theologian, respected by thinkers of all denominations. He is well known around the world and has been Professor of Dogmatic and Ecumenical Studies at the University of Tubingen, Germany, as well as Visiting Professor at Chicago University and at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He holds honorary degrees from several American universities and has lectured at various universities in Europe, America, and Asia.
| List of Abbreviations | p. 15 |
| Translator's Foreword | p. 17 |
| Those for whom this book is written | p. 19 |
| The Horizon | p. 23 |
| The Challenge of Modern Humanisms | p. 25 |
| Turning to man | p. 26 |
| Secular world | p. 26 |
| Opening out of the Churches | p. 28 |
| Christianity for sale? | p. 31 |
| Has Christianity lost its soul? | p. 31 |
| No return | p. 35 |
| No abandonment of hope | p. 37 |
| Humanity through technological evolution? | p. 38 |
| Humanity through politico-social revolution? | p. 43 |
| Between nostalgia and reformism | p. 51 |
| The Other Dimension | p. 57 |
| Approach to God | p. 57 |
| Transcendence? | p. 57 |
| The future of religion | p. 60 |
| Proofs of God? | p. 64 |
| More than pure reason | p. 68 |
| The reality of God | p. 69 |
| The hypothesis | p. 70 |
| Reality | p. 73 |
| Ambiguity of the concept of God | p. 79 |
| The task of theology | p. 83 |
| The Challenge of the World Religions | p. 89 |
| Salvation outside the Church | p. 89 |
| Revalued religions | p. 89 |
| Wealth of the religions | p. 91 |
| Bewildering consequences | p. 97 |
| Anonymous Christianity? | p. 97 |
| Superior ignorance? | p. 99 |
| Challenge on both sides | p. 100 |
| No leveling down | p. 100 |
| Helpful diagnosis | p. 104 |
| Not exclusiveness, but uniqueness | p. 110 |
| Christian existence as critical catalyst | p. 110 |
| Common quest for truth | p. 112 |
| The Distinction | p. 117 |
| What Is Special to Christianity? | p. 119 |
| The Christ | p. 119 |
| Dangerous memory | p. 119 |
| Taking concepts at their face value | p. 122 |
| Which Christ? | p. 126 |
| The Christ of piety? | p. 126 |
| The Christ of dogma? | p. 129 |
| The Christ of the enthusiasts? | p. 133 |
| The Christ of literature? | p. 138 |
| The Real Christ | p. 145 |
| Not a myth | p. 145 |
| In time and place | p. 146 |
| Uncertainties | p. 149 |
| The documents | p. 150 |
| More than a biography | p. 150 |
| Committed testimonies | p. 153 |
| History and faith's certainty | p. 155 |
| Counterquestions about Jesus | p. 156 |
| Justifiable faith | p. 161 |
| Historical criticism--an aid to faith? | p. 163 |
| Christianity and Judaism | p. 166 |
| The sufferings of the past | p. 166 |
| Jesus the Jew | p. 167 |
| A history of blood and tears | p. 168 |
| Future possibilities | p. 169 |
| Increasing understanding | p. 169 |
| Diseussion about Jesus? | p. 172 |
| The Program | p. 175 |
| The Social Context | p. 177 |
| Establishment? | p. 177 |
| The religio-political system | p. 177 |
| Neither priest nor theologian | p. 178 |
| Not with the rulers | p. 179 |
| Radical change | p. 180 |
| Revolution? | p. 183 |
| The revolutionary movement | p. 183 |
| Hope of a liberator | p. 185 |
| Not a social revolutionary | p. 187 |
| Non-violent revolution | p. 189 |
| Emigration? | p. 192 |
| Apolitical radicalism | p. 192 |
| Monasticism | p. 193 |
| Not a religious | p. 195 |
| Not for the elite, but for all | p. 200 |
| Compromise? | p. 201 |
| The devout | p. 202 |
| Moral compromise | p. 204 |
| Not a pious legalist | p. 206 |
| Against self-righteousness | p. 209 |
| Provocative on all sides | p. 211 |
| God's Cause | p. 214 |
| The Center | p. 214 |
| God's kingdom | p. 214 |
| Apocalyptic horizon | p. 216 |
| Demythologizing inevitable | p. 218 |
| Between present and future | p. 220 |
| God is ahead | p. 223 |
| Miracles? | p. 226 |
| Concealing embarrassment | p. 226 |
| What really happened | p. 229 |
| What was transmitted | p. 231 |
| Christian science | p. 233 |
| Indications, not proofs | p. 236 |
| The supreme norm | p. 238 |
| No natural law | p. 238 |
| No revealed law | p. 240 |
| God's will instead of legalism | p. 241 |
| The meaning of the Sermon on the Mount | p. 244 |
| Man's Cause | p. 249 |
| Humanization of man | p. 249 |
| The changed awareness | p. 249 |
| What God wills | p. 251 |
| Relativized traditions, institutions, hierarchs | p. 252 |
| Action | p. 255 |
| Both God and man | p. 255 |
| The person who needs me here and now | p. 256 |
| Even enemies | p. 258 |
| True radicalism | p. 262 |
| Solidarity | p. 265 |
| Partisan for the handicapped | p. 266 |
| Which poor? | p. 267 |
| The moral failures | p. 271 |
| The law of grace | p. 273 |
| The Conflict | p. 278 |
| The decision | p. 278 |
| Those who were for him | p. 278 |
| A Church? | p. 283 |
| Without office or dignity | p. 286 |
| The advocate | p. 291 |
| The debate on God | p. 295 |
| Not a new God | p. 295 |
| The God with a human face | p. 300 |
| The God with qualities | p. 304 |
| Revolution in the understanding of God | p. 309 |
| Not an obvious form of address | p. 314 |
| The end | p. 318 |
| In face of death | p. 319 |
| A last meal | p. 322 |
| Stages | p. 325 |
| Why? | p. 334 |
| In vain? | p. 339 |
| The New Life | p. 343 |
| The beginning | p. 343 |
| Introduction | p. 343 |
| Clarifications | p. 348 |
| The ultimate reality | p. 356 |
| Legends? | p. 361 |
| Origin of faith | p. 370 |
| The criterion | p. 381 |
| Justified | p. 381 |
| Honorific titles | p. 384 |
| Representation | p. 389 |
| The definitive standard | p. 392 |
| The ultimate distinction | p. 396 |
| Revaluation | p. 396 |
| Beyond fanaticism and rigidity | p. 399 |
| By faith alone | p. 402 |
| No other cause | p. 406 |
| Interpretations | p. 411 |
| Discriminating interpretation | p. 411 |
| Limits to demythologization | p. 412 |
| Truth is not simply facticity | p. 415 |
| Narrative presentation and critical reflection | p. 416 |
| Interpretations of death | p. 419 |
| No uniform theory | p. 419 |
| Slain for us | p. 421 |
| Sacrifice? | p. 424 |
| God and suffering | p. 428 |
| Interpretations of the origin | p. 436 |
| Become man | p. 436 |
| Deification or humanization? | p. 440 |
| True God and true man | p. 444 |
| Born of a woman | p. 450 |
| Mary | p. 457 |
| Community of Faith | p. 463 |
| Inspired and inspiring word | p. 463 |
| Inspiration? | p. 463 |
| Word of God? | p. 466 |
| The one Spirit | p. 468 |
| Unholy and holy Spirit | p. 468 |
| Trinity | p. 472 |
| The pluriform Church | p. 478 |
| Assembly, congregation, Church | p. 478 |
| Community in liberty, equality, fraternity | p. 481 |
| Charisms, offices, ministries | p. 484 |
| The diverse constitutions | p. 488 |
| A Petrine ministry? | p. 494 |
| The great mandate | p. 502 |
| Catholic-Protestant | p. 502 |
| Provisional Church | p. 504 |
| Serving Church | p. 505 |
| Guilty Church | p. 507 |
| Determined Church | p. 508 |
| Practice | p. 511 |
| The Practice of the Church | p. 514 |
| Decision for faith | p. 514 |
| A personal decision | p. 514 |
| Criticism of the Church | p. 517 |
| Decision for the Church | p. 521 |
| Why stay? | p. 522 |
| Practical suggestions | p. 525 |
| Against discouragement | p. 527 |
| Why can we hope? | p. 529 |
| Being Human and Being Christian | p. 530 |
| Norms of the human | p. 530 |
| Human autonomy | p. 531 |
| Man's theonomy | p. 534 |
| The unconditioned in the conditioned | p. 536 |
| Uncertainty of norms | p. 539 |
| The criterion for deciding what is Christian | p. 540 |
| Specifically Christian norms? | p. 541 |
| Concrete person instead of abstract principle | p. 544 |
| The distinctive Christian element in ethics | p. 549 |
| The basic model | p. 551 |
| Being Christian as Being Radically Human | p. 554 |
| Social relevance | p. 554 |
| No political short cuts | p. 555 |
| Social consequences | p. 558 |
| Commitment to liberation | p. 562 |
| No uncritical identifications | p. 565 |
| Coping with the negative side | p. 570 |
| Misused cross | p. 571 |
| Misunderstood cross | p. 573 |
| Understood cross | p. 576 |
| Liberated for freedom | p. 581 |
| Justification or social justice? | p. 581 |
| What is not ultimately important | p. 583 |
| What is ultimately important | p. 586 |
| Suggestions | p. 590 |
| Freedom in the legal order | p. 590 |
| Freedom in the struggle for power | p. 593 |
| Freedom from the pressure of consumption | p. 595 |
| Freedom to serve | p. 598 |
| Human existence transfigured in Christian existence | p. 601 |
| Basic Theological Literature | p. 603 |
| Notes | |
| Section A | p. 607 |
| Section B | p. 620 |
| Section C | p. 630 |
| Section D | p. 678 |
| Index | p. 688 |
| Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved. |
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