My Struggle for Freedom: Memoirs

Rating:
Summary: Vatican II, the true story
Review: As a theology student at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. during the time of Vatican II, I was constantly in tune with what was taking place in Rome. Many of our professors made bi-weekly trips to Rome when the Council was in session and would bring back the details.
Kung's memoirs adds the inside story to complete the picture. It is a lengthy, yet fascinating review of the various Vatican II designers and participants. Better yet, you get an excellent understanding of the reform and why it was ended before it could take hold. And the knowledge of the author comes through. It's no wonder that Kung was the top theologian and primary behind-the-scenes designer of it all. I eagerly await his second volumn.

Rating:
Summary: Vatican II, the true story
Review: As a theology student at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. during the time of Vatican II, I was constantly in tune with what was taking place in Rome. Many of our professors made bi-weekly trips to Rome when the Council was in session and would bring back the details.
Kung's memoirs adds the inside story to complete the picture. It is a lengthy, yet fascinating review of the various Vatican II designers and participants. Better yet, you get an excellent understanding of the reform and why it was ended before it could take hold. And the knowledge of the author comes through. It's no wonder that Kung was the top theologian and primary behind-the-scenes designer of it all. I eagerly await his second volumn.

Rating:
Summary: A Balanced Overview of Kung's Life and Thought Through 1968
Review: Hans Kung, perhaps the most controversial Catholic theologian of modern times, has written a memoir of his life up to 1968. In recounting his theological formation, years of teaching, and particularly his service to the Church during the Second Vatican Council, Kung provides readers with a nuanced view of his theological method and conclusions. For North Americans, particularly those who grew up in the wake of the Council's changes, this book is a valuable historical view of the ideas, people, and institutions that formed Catholicism in a time of enormous ferment.

Despite the struggles Kung was to undergo in the 70s, 80s, and 90s (only hinted at in this first volume), he is generally well-disposed to those who opposed him and rarely slips into personal attack. This book is a valuable addition to Catholic historical thought but should also be read in conjunction with those reflective works of Kung's theological counterparts: Rahner, Ratzinger, Congar, and de Lubac.

The translation at times is a bit slip-shod ("degree" in place of "decree" on a number of occasions) but readers should have no real trouble with this editorial problem.

Rating:
Summary: Another fine book from Kung
Review: My Struggle for Freedom is another fine book from this great Christian and Christian theologian, but one concentrating on his life and experiences as another way of approaching the issues central to his life. The years he covers are through the late 1960s, and include his boyhood in Switzerland, his path to becoming a priest, his education in theology and finally Vatican II. The issues, and his commitment to intellectual honesty, to Christian honesty and to Christ as the very core of Christianity, are still central. As always, he calls it as he sees it and gives his reasons for doing so. If you don't like honest and well-reasoned opinion, don't read Kung.

The book reads well, is touching at many points, and simply resounds with his famed honesty, clarity and great erudition. Reading this book is yet more of the liberal education he supplies in all his books. My Struggle for Freedom has only increased my love and admiration for him as a person, as a fellow Christian and as a leader in ethical and religious thinking today. To me, Kung is the voice of ecumenism. (Note that the publisher is a traditionally protestant book house.) While I am mainly protestant in my Christian orientation, Kung has helped me understand the Catholic Church, the mother church of Christianity, to the point where I deeply regret all the historical splits, and that another outcome had not been negotiated for the Reformation. This is ironic. He is a persistent and insightful critic of the church, yet he creates love for this church which he refuses to leave or stop loving; and after all is done, it is an ironic testament to the greatness of the Church itself that it has produced such a man.

Kung is a man of great courage, of true commitment to Christ and Christian ideals.

If you have ever wondered about the man, the person, who has the thoughts behind his many other books, you will enjoy reading this one. The best recommendation I can give is to say I await with excitement the publication of the second volume of autobiography, detailing his life up to today.

Rating:
Summary: An important book for me
Review: This is going to take a long time to digest. I escaped from constraint by going into philosophy instead of seminary. But my impression has always been that the Church had a place for inquiry as long as you did not disrupt everyone else as you moved from reflective thinking stage to stage in your personal quest. I further thought that as you reached the highest levels you would realize that what the Church teaches was right all along. Beware thinking that the concrete interpretations you have as a young person are the only ways to interpret what was to be believed. I have found the statments of faith, for example Fides et Ratio, to be masterpieces of saying many things at once in many ways. You only fail when you try to impose one interpretation or one level on everyone else. My way or the highway. Now reading this I wonder if my Protestant friends do not have a point.