GREAT CHRISTIAN THINKERS
By William F. McInerny
Preeminent theologian Hans Kung presents what he calls “a simple introduction to Christian theology” in his newest publication. This “simple introduction” is also novel in its embodiment of a select twofold emphasis. Readers are introduced to Christian theology via seven persons identified as (1) paradig-matic figures of entire eras who not only understood the world anew but also (2) changed their worlds and the worlds of others. Hence the appellation “great” Christian thinkers.
They are:
- Paul of Tarsus, initiator of the first paradigm shift in Christianity, from Jewish Christianity to Hellenistic Gentile Christianity; the one responsible for Christianity’s becoming a universal religion.
- Origen, the “man of steel” who first embodied a model of scientific theology; the consummate synthesizer of the Greek world and Christianity.
- Augustine, the incomparable African, initiator of the Latin Catholic paradigm, father of all Latin Western Christianity.
- Thomas Aquinas, creator of the mature classical form of medieval Roman Catholic theology.
- Martin Luther, the reformer who brought forth the Protestant-evangelical paradigm in stark contrast to Latin Catholic medieval theology.
- Friedrich Schleiermacher, church father of the 19th century; the one who shifted the reformation paradigm to modernity.
- Karl Barth, church father of the 20th century, who simultaneously lauded Schleiermacher’s accomplishments as he demolished them with his own dialectical theology; the principal initiator of a postmodern paradigm of theology.
Kung’s dual focus is on these thinkers as persons within different cultural/historical environments, conjoined with a second emphasis on the effects of their thought on Christianity.
Kung describes and evaluates only enough of each person’s thought necessary to make clear the seismic force each exerted. He intends to assist readers in coming nearer to these thinkers without, however, presenting them fully.
Seeing these Titans refracted through the prism of Kung’s encyclopedic knowedge of history and doctrine is exhilarating. Though his interpretations are replete with supporting facts and the scholarly analyses of others, the selection of these specific seven and their portraits are distinctly Kung’s.
For example, even though each thinker is paradigmatic of an entire era, that does not mean each achieved a paradigm shift within Christianity. Kung associates Paul, Augustine, Luther, Schleier-macher and Barth with such shifts. On the other hand, Origen completed the paradigm shift begun by Paul. Aquinas is presented as too dependent on Augustine’s theology to merit the recognition of transcending it.
Additionally, Kung is most sympathetic to those thinkers embroiled in controversies with ecclesial authority figures. He delights in observing that Origen’s donnybrook with Bishop Demetrius was “the first great conflict in church history between a monarchical bishop and a free Christian teacher.”
He points out that, unlike Origen, Augustine became a bishop of the church. Unlike Augustine, Aquinas was a court theologian, “the great apologist of the centralist papacy.” Luther is hailed as the exemplar of a paradigm shift par excellence.
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