Hans Kung Quotes & Sayings

I like the catholicity in time: our tradition is one of 2,000 years. — Hans Kung

Even apart from the image of a truly merciless God that contradicts everything we can assume from what Jesus says about the Either of the lost, can we be surprised at a time when retributive punishments without an opportunity of probation are being increasingly abandoned in education and penal justice, that the idea not only of a lifelong, but even eternal punishment of body and soul, seems to many people absolutely monstrous. — Hans Kung

After two world wars, the collapse of fascism, nazism, communism and colonialism and the end of the cold war, humanity has entered a new phase of its history. — Hans Kung

Does not simply contain God's word: it becomes God's word for anyone who submits trustfully and in faith to its testimony. — Hans Kung

I am firmly convinced that there is life after death, not in a primitive sense but as the entry of my completely finite person into God's infinity, as a transition into another reality beyond the dimension of space and time that pure reason can neither affirm nor deny. — Hans Kung

The face he showed in Jesus is really his true and single face. — Hans Kung

For many people, the pope is still, to a certain extent, a positive role model and a moral force, although others feel that this aspect has suffered greatly. — Hans Kung

I'm not saying goodbye to life because I'm a misanthropist or disdain this life, but because, for other reasons, it's time to move on. — Hans Kung

To be no more than scholarly reflection on its object from one particular standpoint, which is anyway one legitimate standpoint among others. — Hans Kung

And a third thing is the understanding of the Church as a community, a communion which is just a hierarchy but the people of God, whose servants are the priests and bishops. — Hans Kung

The Pope would have an easier job than the President of the United States in adopting a change of course. He has no Congress alongside him as a legislative body nor a Supreme Court as a judiciary. He is absolute head of government, legislator and supreme judge in the church. If he wanted to, he could authorize contraception over night, permit the marriage of priests, make possible the ordination of women and allow eucharistic fellowship with this Protestant churches. What would a Pope do who acted in the spirit of Obama? — Hans Kung

We are conscious that religions cannot solve the economic, political and social problems of this earth. — Hans Kung

There will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions. — Hans Kung

Alluding to hell is a warning that a person can completely neglect his purpose in life. I don't believe in an eternal hell. — Hans Kung

God's love does not protect us from suffering. God's love protects us in the midst of suffering. — Hans Kung

Hundreds of millions of human beings on our planet increasingly suffer from unemployment, poverty, hunger, and the destruction of their families. — Hans Kung

If you cannot see that divinity includes male and female characteristics and at the same time transcends them, you have bad consequences. Rome and Cardinal O'Connor base the exclusion of women priests on the idea that God is the Father and Jesus is His Son, there were only male disciples, etc. They are defending a patriarchal Church with a patriarchal God. We must fight the patriarchal misunderstanding of God. — Hans Kung

If priests were allowed to marry, if this would be an optional thing, and if he could have wife and children, he would certainly have less temptation to satisfy certain sexual impulses with minors. — Hans Kung

Humanity today possesses sufficient economic, cultural and spiritual resources to introduce a better global order. — Hans Kung

In my view, the Catholic Church as a community of faith will be preserved, but only if it abandons the Roman system of rule. We managed to get by without this absolutist system for 1,000 years. The problems began in the 11th century, when the popes asserted their claim to absolute control over the Church. — Hans Kung

That is the Roman way: to give favors to the favorites. — Hans Kung

The Gospel has to be the norm. — Hans Kung

A human person is infinitely precious and must be unconditionally protected. — Hans Kung

Time and again we see leaders and members of religions incite aggression, fanaticism, hate, and xenophobia - even inspire and legitimate violent and bloody conflicts. — Hans Kung

Everyone agrees the celibacy rule is just a Church law dating from the 11th century, not a divine command. — Hans Kung

That means that every human being - without distinction of sex, age, race, skin color, language, religion, political view, or national or social origin - possesses an inalienable and untouchable dignity. — Hans Kung

Religion often is misused for purely power-political goals, including war. — Hans Kung

I don't cling to earthly life because I believe in eternal life. That's the big distinction between my point of view and a purely secular position. — Hans Kung

But I have to add - and this answers your other question - this catholicity in time and in space is only meaningful for me if there is, at the same time, a concentration on the Gospel. — Hans Kung

In the last resort, a love of God without love of humanity is no love at all. — Hans Kung

Second, we also got a more authentic liturgy of the people of God, in the vernacular language. — Hans Kung

I remember the Curia said, that's up to the American bishops, not up to Rome. — Hans Kung

We should think about whether canonizations, which are an invention of the Middle Ages, still make sense today. — Hans Kung

As a matter of fact, you have deficiencies in all religions, but you have truth in all religions. — Hans Kung

A Church which abandons the truth abandons itself. — Hans Kung

In the event that my illness worsens, I want to have a guarantee that I can die in a dignified manner. Nowhere in the bible does it say that a person has to stick it out to the decreed end. No one tells us what "decreed" means. — Hans Kung

It is an absolutely unique success of the church community to have introduced such an epoch-making change, in just a few years, without having a serious division. — Hans Kung

The Epistle to the Romans is an extremely important synthesis of the whole theology of St. Paul. — Hans Kung

All historical experience demonstrates the following: Our earth cannot be changed unless in the not too distant future an alteration in the consciousness of individuals is achieved. — Hans Kung

However, if the religions in essence merely repeat statements from the United Nations Human Rights Declaration, such a Declaration becomes superfluous; an ethic is more than rights. — Hans Kung

Historical arguments; traditional apologetics breaks down here. Since man is here dealing with God and this by definition means with the invisible, impalpable, uncontrollable, only one attitude is appropriate and required : believing trust, trusting faith. — Hans Kung

No peace among the nations
without peace among the religions.
No peace among the religions
without dialogue between the religions
No dialogue between the religions
without investigation of the foundation of the religions. — Hans Kung

It considers this Jesus as ultimately decisive, definitive, archetypal for man in these various dimensions of his. — Hans Kung

There will be peace on earth when there is peace among the world religions. — Hans Kung

Even manifestly senseless suffering and death can have a meaning, can acquire a meaning. a hidden meaning. — Hans Kung

We are convinced of the fundamental unity of the human family. — Hans Kung