Frank Hoffman

Encounters with Hans Küng

Frank Hoffman, of Drury, South Auckland, has called twice on the famous Swiss theologian, Hans Küng, – in 1975 and this year. He reports on Küng’s struggles with Rome and his wonderful ecumenical endeavours.

Hans Küng has lived and worked for many years in Tübingen, near the Black Forest, in Germany. I have been there twice and visited Küng each time. Tübingen has a refreshing environment: it’s a place dominated by the young, away from the rat race atmosphere of many German cities. It is a major University town, a little like Dunedin. In the market place you see the young people miming and playing music, while displaying a healthy disrespect for authority!
The resident population is barely 20,000, but it doubles when the students are in residence. The University is spread throughout the city, and the university life permeates the old buildings. Like that other famous university city, Heidelburg, it lies on the River Neckar. The University of Tübingen celebrated its 500th birthday a few years ago. The reason for my visit in 1975 was to see my brother, who was the Professor of German literature there.
Tübingen has one of the principal Theology Faculties in Germany. The town lies between Catholic and Lutheran areas of Germany. Most of the theological ‘chairs’ are endowed by the churches, but the churches work together. The chair of Fundamental Theology, which Küng had held at Tübingen, is endowed by the Catholic Church with an absolute right to appoint the Professor as well as to sack him. When in the early ’60s he had been offered this position, probably the youngest theologian ever to be selected for this task at a university which prides itself on its diverse theological facilities, it was principally because he was so highly thought of by his peers.
Shortly after Küng’s move to Tübingen, Cardinal Leibricht wanted to ‘borrow’ him as his advisor at the Vatican Council. The authorities saw this as a tribute to the University and agreed to let him go. But after the Council, Küng decided to say publicly what he needed to say, even if it cost him this job he loved.
At the time of my first visit in 1975, Küng’s position as Professor of Dogmatic Theology was ‘under threat’ from the Vatican, among other things because of the critical views he had expressed in his book Infallibility, an Inquiry. Küng had been to New Zealand in 1973. He had just written his book, The Council and Reunion. Since we had heard him in Auckland, my wife and I determined to go and visit him again in Tübingen.
I recall that we discussed with him the threat he was under of losing his Professorship. He said that what he would miss most would not be the loss of his job and salary but the loss of what he loved most – training young, gifted students who were preparing for the priesthood.
I asked him if he would remain in the priesthood, if the church moved against him. He said that he must stay, because if he was to work for change in the church it could only come from within. He was loyal to his vocation. Since that time I myself have sometimes felt like leaving the church in despair, but the example of Hans Küng has helped sustain me as a Catholic.
Küng was eventually sacked by the church from being Professor of Dogmatic Theology in 1980, and lost his licence to teach. But at once the University made him head of the Ecumenical Faculty, where he remained until his retirement in 1996. In that post he was simply carrying on the ecumenical work that he had been doing during his years of teaching dogmatic theology.
Four months ago I went back to Europe and visited my brother’s widow in Tübingen. I wanted to see Hans Küng again, but I was told it might be difficult. Just before my arrival, Küng and Cardinal Lehmann had been received with acclaim by the many thousands who had attended a Catholic Congress in Ulm.
An open discussion with Küng under the heading ‘Dialogue at the Sickbed’ had been arranged at the invitation of the Cardinal, who obviously shares Küng’s concern over the crisis the church needs to address. Cardinal Lehmann is President of the German Catholic Bishops’ Conference and is highly respected in Germany. The German press has treated Küng’s meeting with Lehmann at Ulm as a great step forward. Catholics and Protestants rejoiced at this initiative.