Rating: 
Summary: Finally
Review: I finally finished this thing. It felt like it took forever to read and it did (two months). It was one of those books that you know you have to read and just get through it like a snow blower through a Wisconsin driveway. Kung has been around for awhile and he is well known within Catholic circles for having his own agenda. The early part of this book was very good and did a good job of explaining the history of the church in only about 50 pages. Not a bad job. Then we get into the Vatican II and beyond years and Kung's bias comes out much like the snow shooting out the top of that snow blower. Overall a good book and one most amateur theology types would like to read. I have recommended a few of these Modern Library Chronicles and this one is no different. If you want to know more about the beginnings of Christianity and the history of the Catholic church then this is the book for you. It explains things in a simple non-esoteric fashion despite some complications I had with it (mainly because I wouldn't read it for days then pick it up again and try to figure out where I was in the reading). Dust off the snow blower and take a stab at this book.
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Summary: Another Manifesto from a "Protestant" Catholic
Review: Rather than a work of genuine history, Kung's book is more of an ideological manifesto seeking to make the case for changing the Catholic Church into a larger version of a liberal Protestant denomination. Kung is famous for challenging traditional Catholic teachings, especially those teachings concerning papal authority. In the past, he has even written ambiguously about the central Christian teaching concerning the bodily resurrection of Christ. His vision of a future Catholic Church includes ordination of women, a merely honorific papacy, and rejection of much of traditional Catholic devotion. In sum, he substitutes his own personal judgment and opinion for centuries of Church tradition and development. The reader looking for genuine history should look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Kung's Catholic Church
Review: Hans Kung doesn't seem to me to possess the passion-free virtue of the true historian. The Catholic Church represents both God and the Catholics. If everything in the world would be assimilated into the Church, it would have no constitution, in fact, no existance. Mexico City.
Rating: 
Summary: Eye opening!
Review: Hans Kung is an important figure in recent Roman Catholic life. His "short history" of the church is well written and informative for anyone interested in a clear, basic overview of 2000 years of that history and therefore merits serious attention. In the introduction, he lays out the different forms such a history can take in avoiding two extremes: one, "a criminal history of Christianity" that becomes "uninspired, unexciting and boring"; and the other, an "idealizing and romanticized history of the church." Kung's work is certainly not the latter, but a judgment on how close it comes to the former will depend on what side of the spectrum one falls in the Catholic Church's current so-called progressive/conservative tensions: the cliche about seeing a glass half empty or half full comes to mind. No one will deny that many wrong and evil things have been done by Christians over the centuries, but not everyone will agree that they should be judged and the current church transformed mainly by today's cultural attitudes and structures, themselves conditioned by time and space. An easy read with many challenges for upper-division undergraduates through faculty and researchers, plus general readers.
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Summary: catholic history for the anti-catholic
Review: Is there any element of Catholic tradition that this guy likes? If so, he hides it well. Credit the publishers for finding the most anti-Catholic "Catholic" intellectual available to write this book. Kung wants, among other things, a rehabilitation of Luther in the Church, reconsideration of the Church's beliefs and teachings on the nature of marriage and human sexuality, and an end to the Pope's role as final arbiter of disputes within the Church. A well-written book, but one that tells the reader a lot more about those who object to Catholicism than about the Church. At the end, the thoughtful reader has to ask, "Why isn't this guy a Protestant?" Try the more reliable H. W. Crocker's "Triumph" for a more balanced and theologically reliable view of the Church.
Rating:
Summary: Eye opening
Review: If you believe the Roman Catholic Church is by no means perfect and could use some reform you will enjoy this book. Personally, I found this book to be excellent. Kung shows how many things that most lay Catholics take for granted were clearly not divinely inspired but simply the result of secular human motivations over the course of a long history. I dont believe as many reviewers on this site do, that Kung is anti-Catholic. I thought he essentially brushed over some of the most egregrious crimes of the past and could have painted a far harsher picture. He is a reformer trying to work within the system to improve it. This book gives the casual reader a good overview of how the Church has gotten to where it is, in a digestible 200 or so pages. An excellent introduction to this subject and well worth the small effort effort to open your eyes.
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Summary: The Catholic Church - A Short History
Review: Excellent, intelligent and insightful. The reader experiences the sensations of a great mind at work. Hans Kuns is a blessing and gift.
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Summary: Short History - Long on Reality
Review: This book is quite concise and handles the reality of the growth of Catholic Church in a remarkable manner...remarkable because of Hans brutal truthfulness. Here is an author that has been roundly criticized by the RC and yet he manages a less than stellar past with care and respect never shown to him. I think this is a must read for every Catholic, as it reveals all your fears, and a must read for non-Catholics as it would encourage ones faith in the Reformation.
Not a word wasted, a perfect review of history without the un-necessary!
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Summary: This book is unresearched and factually errant
Review: Being a history buff, I usually enjoy a good historical chronology. Kung's work is neither good nor historical. It is propaganda crafted to suit his own agenda.None of his historical accounts, beginning with the early church through the Holocaust to present day, are accurate. The facts he did give which were true, were only true in part and presented with a distinctive bias. On other issues, Kung lied, pure and simple, especially in regards to Pope Nicholas I, Pius XII, the role of Constantine in Rome, and so on. As a Catholic, Kung questions whether or not Christ actually founded a Church (read Matthew and John), doubts the Holy Trinity, papal primacy and most of the basic tenets of the Church. He is pro-choice, for the ordination of women to the priesthood and the compromise of basic Catholic dogma in favor of ecuminism. The facts are in error and his conclusions are garbage. Don't waste your time or money on this book..... Peace,
Ann
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Summary: Loyal Criticism
Review: In this highly readable yet profound short history of the Catholic Church Mr. Kung provides the general reader with not only the history of the human institution versus the divine institution, but also with insights on why and how such human institution may or should be reformed. A necessary reading for Catholics who want to know what a loyal -and prominent- critic of the Church believes, and also for those Christians who believe in oecumenism. Not least, of course, for Jews who believe a reconciliation with Christians is possible, despite the many horrors committed against them by the Catholic Church and its members throughout the centuries since what Christians believe is the coming of the 'Christ', the 'Annointed', the 'Messiah'.
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