Disputed Truth

Reviews / Votes

In this second installment of his memoirs, Kung spares no modesty in giving his rendition of some of the most harried events of the post-conciliar Church, many of which found him at the center of the controversies. The first volume (My Struggle for Freedom, 2003) explored his life in the years leading to the Second Vatican Council and Kung's role as a peritus. In Disputed Truth, Kung focuses on the extensive lecturing tours he has made in the Council's aftermath, the personalities and places he has encountered, as well as his numerous publications and the vicissitudes of his exchanges with the hierarchy. What comes through on every page is that this is his side of the story. * Catholic Books Review * Kung and Joseph Ratzinger were the youngest priests participating in the Second Vatican Council. One of the two committed himself to the Catholic hierarchy and became Pope Benedict XVI; here the voice of other continues his story through a period when his calls for reform were leading ever closer to the punitive measures that would eventually be taken to silence and discredit him. His major works during this time were Infallable? An Enquiry, On Being a Christian, and Does God Exist?. He stops to take another breath at 1980. * BOOK NEWS, Inc. * A book which makes absorbing reading for anyone interested in the course of 20th century Catholic history or the development of modern theology. * Church of England Newspaper * On the evidence of this book, Professor Kung is a just and congenial guide in this post-Vatican II age. * Renew * Brilliantly written in snappy style and full of vim. * The Pastoral Review * This volume begins with Kueng as a young theologian making his mark at Vatican II and ends with the Vatican taking away his credentials as a Catholic theologian. As with virtually all memoirs, this is an exercise in self-justification. Kueng offers his account of his decades-long struggle with the Vatican and in particular with Joseph Ratzinger, who went on to become Pope Benedict XVI. Kueng likes a good fight, and his account of his theological skirmishes makes for engaging reading. * The Christian Century * Many will be fascniated by a blow-by-blow account of Kung's struggle with the vatican, and for the insight the book gives into the man himself. * Catholic Herald * Kung's great strength lies in the sheer weight of his scholarship, his openness to evidence, and his passion for truth. * Church Times * This book of memoirs is an attempt by Kung to insure his legacy. They are testimony to the dimensions that the search and disputes for truth assumed in his life. * Catholic Library World * As with all memoirs, Kung's Disputed Truth presents a life from one perspective. Given all that he's undergone though it's not mean-spirited. Rather, it is an act of self-defense by someone who has been one of recent Catholicism's most influential theologians. * St. Anthony Messenger *