Hans Kung: New Horizons for Faith and Thought.

Research. On the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday many scholars contributed to a volume assessing his contributions to theology while pleading that the status of Kung as a Catholic theologian be reassessed. That such a reopening of the Kung dossier (#399/57i at the Congregation of the Faith) will happen during the current papacy is more pious wish than a probability given the current atmosphere in Rome.

What has Kung done in the past decade and a half since his encounter with the CDF? Well, for one thing, he has written books on everything from Freud, literature, Mozart, and the coming new millennium to substantial studies of Christianity's encounter with the great religions of the East, a substantial volume on Judaism, and profound reflections on the need for a global ethic. These works are scrutinized by a panoply of scholars ranging from Masao Abe on Kung's understanding of Buddhism to a Nobel laureate in physics (Nevill Mott) crediting Kung's On Being a Christian for his own return to religious faith.

This volume, as befitting one celebrating achievement, is not overly critical of Kung, but it does set out in bold relief the degree to which Kung has asked the tough questions that set much of the past theological agenda for the church and how his restlessly catholic mind sees the issues for tomorrow: the relationship of the world's religions in an age of instant communication and terrifying development, and the critical need for restating Christian belief in terms understandable for this age. Currently, Kung is at work on a vast project on Islam which is a compelling area of study for anyone who reads both the newspapers and the signs of the times.

Those interested in the history of contemporary theology will benefit from a close reading of the contributions in this volume which range from an account of how Kung has been "received" in places as diverse as Latin America, the United States, and Russia to a fascinating report on the tensions between theology in Eastern and Western Europe by Peter Hebblethwaite. In between are close studies of Kung's doctrine of God, Christology, and ecclesiology, as well as surveys of his work in the wider Oikumene.

And Kung himself? He works as indefatigably as ever but, of necessity, on the edges of the "official" church where he remains in the company of a whole roster of recent dissenters," both rehabilitated and not: Chenu, Congar, DeLubac, Danielou, Teilhard, Murray, Rahner, Curran, etc. Quite a roster; indeed, in the estimation of many, an honor roll. History will have the last word, however. Newman, in The Apologia, wrote something that was as true in 1 865 as it is today: "It is individuals and not the Holy See, that have taken the initiative, and given the lead to the Catholic mind, in theological inquiry."

Karl Rahner, a sometime theological critic of Hans Kung, was, despite his forbidding prose style and theological profundity, a deeply committed pastoral theologian who always saw his work as a service to the church. In his fifty-two years as a priest he preached homilies on almost a daily basis and was a gifted retreat master. What Rahner said of Aquinas