Joseph Ratzinger and Hans Kung: compare and contrast

Be sure to check out the latest by my friend Samuel Gregg who writes for Acton Institute.  Mr. Gregg has a fine comparison of  Papa Joseph Ratzinger and Fr. Hans Kung, sparked by the coincidental release of their respective new books.  The Pope published his second volume on Jesus of Nazareth, while Kung put out his Can The Church Still Be Saved.

Results vary.

Gregg points out parallels and differences between the man who is now Vicar of Christ and the man who is now forbidden to teach in a Catholic faculty.

Here is a taste of Gregg’s look at the two authors and the two books:

But perhaps the most revealing difference between Benedict and Fr. Kung’s books is the tone. Can the Church still be saved? is characterized by anger – the fury of an enfant terrible who’s not-so-enfant anymore and who knows the game is up: that his vision of Catholicism can’t be saved from the irredeemable irrelevance into which it has sunk.

Jesus of Nazareth, however, is pervaded by humility: the humility of one who approaches human history’s greatest mystery, applies to it his full intellect, and then presents his contribution for others’ assessment.

Check out Mr. Gregg’s piece for more.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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5 Comments

  1. FranzJosf says:

    Jay Nordlinger, the music critic and conservative opinion journalist, once wrote that a great conductor (I think it was Lorin Maazel) once said to him, “First rate musicians like to have first rate musicians around them; second rate musicians like to have fifth rate musicians around them.”

    Not sure how that applies to the above observations of humilty and anger, but I think it does somehow. I shall never forget the experience of having a leftist self-avowed lesbian, upon learning that I am politically conservative, her face red with anger, SCREAMING how intolerant I and my fellows are. The irony was lost on her.

  2. Brad says:

    Dear herr Kung: Matthew 16:18 says hi.

  3. Norah says:

    Samuel Gregg is an Australian.

  4. Random Friar says:

    Pride makes great men small. Humility makes small men great.

    Always be on the lookout for pride, that ancient evil.

  5. Tony Layne says:

    ” … [T]he fury of an enfant terrible who’s not-so-enfant anymore and who knows the game is up: that his vision of Catholicism can’t be saved from the irredeemable irrelevance into which it has sunk.”

    Which is why I find it amusing that an equally irrelevant group, the ACC, has chosen Fr. Küng to be one of their speakers: the blind leading the blind.

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