Catholic Theology at Germany's University

Seldom has a religious subject commanded newspaper space for so long, and captured the attention of Germans as much, as the announcement last December that the Vatican had revoked Hans Küng's permission to teach Catholic theology at Germany's University of Tübingen. Widespread and highly emotional expressions of protest-but also of support-quickly followed.

One Catholic weekly called "the condemnation of this world famous, controversial, aggressive, keen-minded theologian" a "profound shock" that would be felt "throughout the entire Western religious world." What had caused the Vatican to take such a step?

A Controversy of Long Standing

Hans Küng, born in Switzerland in 1928, studied in Rome and was ordained to the priesthood in 1954. As early as 1957 he caused raised eyebrows among orthodox Catholics with the thesis he wrote for his Doctor of Theology degree. In it he argued that the doctrine of Christian justification as taught by Karl Barth, one of Europe's leading 20th-century Protestant theologians, was compatible with Catholic teaching.

In 1967 Küng, now professor of dogmatics and ecumenical theology at Tübingen University, published a book entitled "The Church." His unorthodox views were quickly rejected by Vatican officials, who invited him to Rome to have the matter clarified. Küng refused to go, claiming that the Hierarchy's authoritarian manner would prevent a fair and open hearing. Three years later he published the book Infallible? An Inquiry, timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the dogma of papal infallibility, a dogma Küng claimed was open to question.

Meanwhile his books were selling well. New ones published in 1974 and 1978 became best-sellers. Some thought the controversy showed signs of waning, when, in his 1978 book, Küng dealt with a "safe" subject: proofs for the existence of God. But in the spring of 1979 he published a book entitled "The Church-Remaining in the Truth?" and also wrote the introduction to an anti-Vatican book authored by August Hasler, How the Pope Became Infallible. The slumbering flames of religious controversy flared anew, this time higher than before.

So the Vatican's ruling, although long in coming, was not totally unexpected. It found that "Professor Hans Küng, in his writing, has departed from the integral truth of Roman Catholic faith, and therefore he can no longer be considered a Catholic theologian or function as such in a teaching role."

What did this actually mean? The action stopped far short of excommunication, and even permitted Küng to remain a priest. But it did take away his permission to teach Catholic theology and to train men for the priesthood.