Rating: 
Summary: The Vatican won't like it...
Review: but Kung's book puts forth very cogently his understanding of ecclesiology and of the unbiblical centralization of power that Rome has effected over the past two millennia. The book is translasted from the German, and the English prose is so dense and Teutonic that it's hard going at times. (I had the same problem with Kung and Karl Rahner when I was studying theology back in the 20th century.) But it's well worth the effort. I have long thought that, even if the Roman interpretation of Petrine sovereignty were correct, the phenomenology of the Papacy could well use some modernization. Should the Pope look like an mid-Eastern satrap or like the Secretary-General of the World Council of Churches? Theologically, Kung comes down on the Secretary-General side. And he proves his case with excellent thinking and understanding of the Christian revelation. {Were this volume to include the implied scholarly apparatus, it might run to 600 pages!} This is an excellent book and part of an outstanding series.
Rating:
Summary: Not a true history, but definitely worth reading!
Review: Anyone who expects to get a detailed history of the Church from this book will be disappointed. Nonetheless, it is well worth reading. Kung clearly has a biased view and I admire him for admitting it upfront. Unlike some reviewers, I never thought Kung mad his arguments against papal infallability out of vengence or because of his difficulties with Church hierarchy. (In addition to admitting his bias, he also discloses his continued affection for the Church in spite of his troubles.) Rather, he offers a well-researched and well-thought out review of where the Church's stands on papal infallability, modernity, celibacy, women's ordination, etc. come from, which is NOT from the Gospel or the early Christians. Liberal Catholics will find that Kung articulates their opinions as well as their hopes for reform of the Church. But even conversatives will find much food for thought here. (...)
Rating: 
Summary: In spite of itself...
Review: Hans Kung's brilliance as an author and a theologian is not to be faulted, and in this volume he shows us how the Roman Catholic Church has survived 2,000 years in spite of itself. There is very little new here for anyone who has read church history. For those who haven't, the author rips through 2000 years with the highlights, and he basically tells us that good leadership has been the exception in Roman Catholocism, rather than the rule. The rule has been power politics at the expense of strengthening and sustaining a religious structure that serves the spritual needs of its members. At least, until Pope John XXIII and his miraculous Vatican II - ultimately betrayed by every succeeding Pope. The author's ire is especially aimed at John Paul II who's pronouncements to the world at large have been borderline progressive, though not followed by much action; and his pronouncements and actions to the church family which have been ultra-conservative. I have no disagreements with Kung's history or analysis, however, he weakens his case by using the final chapters to carry on about his own troubles with the Pope and the curia. This failing aside, Kung (whose volume "On Being a Christian" helped bring me back into the fold)gives us a factual and highly readable account of Mother Church, and some basic proposals for a Vatican III that could re-energize Roman Catholocism, and bring our Church into a more democratic model of a "people's church" in the new century. I won't be holding my breath, though.
Rating: 
Summary: Sad
Review: One can feel the pain of a sincere priest and theologian who has been forbidden to teach as a Catholic theologian. It has been a tremendous decline from the time he was one of the periti at Vatican II. Küng is a theologian and not a historian. This is a tiny book and it dishonors the complexity of his thought. Most of what he does is summarize what Protestant historians have been saying since the Reformation. He adds nothing to our knowledge of the history of the Catholic Church although the subtitle of the book is A History. I usually get angry when non-historians write history, because dilettante's have no experience working in archives and seem to think that history-writing is more or less a summary of documents. Others seem to think that it is a summary of previous historians. In the case of Küng, because his background as a great theologian gone astray, I feel no anger but sadness. I was watching a program on C-SPAN on Afghani-Islamic terrorism. One of the speakers pointed out that in the mid-19th century the two biggest opponents of modernization were the Papacy and the Russian Empire. The Russian Empire is no more. The Papacy is still as solid as a rock. If the Church made a wrong turn in the 4th century as Küng thinks, should it not have gone the way of the Russian Empire even before the Russian Empire began. We have the example of the Orthodox Churches. They have a government similar to that which Küng prefers for the Catholic Church. And yet, because the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is no Pope, the Orthodox Churches have suffered horribly in comparison with the Catholic Church.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, dear...
Review: This is as if Little Red Riding Hood has been asked to write a rather lengthy report on the history of the wolf. One really has to wonder what the mental giant at Modern Library had in mind when he/she chose this particular author for this particular project, though I must admit to laughing right out loud in several very unexpected spots. The binding is fine, however; these are, physically, quite lovely little books.
Rating:
Summary: A lot is packed in 213 pages
Review: This is an interesting book especially to those such as myself who knows nothing of the Catholic Church. The writer Kung is a priest but has been censured for his rather radical views in the past. This book is a rather passionate call for change. When Christianity was established in Rome around 300 AD it was clear that the ultimate control of doctrine was by the Emperor. With the collapse of the Western Empire the church in the West was able to convert the largely Germanic conquerors of the Empire. The various German Kingdoms ebbed and flowed in terms of their power and the Bishop of Rome was able to have a power over the church independent of the secular power. This is a development that Kung dislikes. His model for the Church is more of a wider organisation embracing the broader church community not a hierarchical authoritarian organisation. Kung also suggests that the conversion of the Germans led the Western Church to change its character and to develop and interest in Saints and relics. At much the same time the clergy were forced to become celibate. This created a church that was separate and distinct from worshipers. The retention of Latin as the language for the mass further turned rituals into things that could not be understood by the congregations. Kung also shows how the early church used extensive forgeries to back up the image of the church always being a hierachial and authoritarian organisation something that was far from the truth. Kung talks about the other failures of the church in modern times. The resistance to modernity and democracy that was part and parcel of church life prior to 1890. The failure of the Pope in the second world war to speak out on behalf of the Jews. It is a book that has a lot in it for such a short work. One would imagine that conservative Catholics would hate it and see it is left wing propaganda but to an outsider it is a fascinating insight into a world that is often hard to understand.
Rating:
Summary: A wolf in sheep's clothing
Review: This is not a history of the Church. It is an agenda. Mr. Kung is pushing his social agenda in the guise of a history book. At every opportunity he takes a snipe at the Church's positions, whether it is the male priesthood, celibate clergy, or abortion. Footnotes and references are not cited, as is typical in an unresearched document. Mr. Kung claims to be the "primary writer of Vatican II". I was not there, so I will not assert who's particular pen scribed which particular sentence. This I do know: Holy Mother Church has taken the documents of Vatican II to heart. But the Mr. Kung (I am genuinely revolted to call him "Father Kung") thirty plus years after Vatican II displays no loyalty to the Church, the Pope, or the Magisterium. Read this book if you want to see what sort of extreme social trends are threatening to tear our Church apart from within -- Mr. Kung's brand of theology, that is. But if you want a fair and accurate summary assessment of church history, stick to Bokenkotter.
Rating:
Summary: A SHORT (BIASED) HISTORY
Review: This book is not so much a history, as it is a platform for the author's controversial and liberal viewpoint. This 200 page diatribe has virtually nothing good to say about the Catholic church. He definitely has an axe to grind, probably because of the Vatican's censure in 1979, banning his teachings as a Catholic theologian.
Rating: 
Summary: Why the pope dissed me so I'll rip on him for 200 pages.
Review: Hans Küng is a very learned man. Reading this as if he's lecturing at Tübingen gives me the sense he knows thousand of pages of information and had a hard time distilling it into 200. But clearly, the high point of his life was having his only liked pope, John XIII, name him a theological consultant to Vatican II. The low point was having John Paul II censure him for what seem to me are some off-the-wall views. If only the laity and his theologian buddies could vote - then Hans could get his ideas passed as Church rules! But alas, that wretched papacy got in the way! Thus, we have a emotionally scarred, vindicative person racing through history, selecting every bit of evidence to prove the papacy is the "gang that couldn't shoot straight". Makes me wonder why there are 850,000,000 Catholics instead of 85. And makes me certain that if he ever writes a short of history of me I'm getting on his good side!
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable achievement, if rather biased
Review: When I purchased Hans Kueng's concise history of the Catholic Church, I was skeptical about whether 2000 years of history could be reasonably compressed into a volume as short as this. Yet as a Protestant from a family with a long Catholic heritage, I was eager to try it, and I do not for a moment regret reading this pithy, informative gem. Kueng really does trace Catholic history from the time of Christ--exploring what the church actually constituted in the early days of Christianity, how the church and its governing structure including the Papacy evolved, why the great schism between Eastern and Western Catholicism occurred, the historical frauds perpetrated by some medieval Popes in their efforts to consolidate power, the merits of the case of the Reformation leaders like Luther and Calvin, and the emergence of the modern absolutist Papacy from the time of Pius IX onward, and the brief moment of reform centered in Vatican II. Predictably, Kueng presents a rather biased history, especially when reviewing recent times. (He almost categorically rules out the possibility that John Paul II has had ANY positive influence, which I find hard to accept.) But that notwithstanding, I cannot see that anyone but the most conservative Catholics would find this book anything but enlightening and worth the time spent in reading it. If this is what the Modern Library intends to do with its new Chronicles series, it should be a real boon to those who want serious history in reasonably small doses.
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