As for Prof. Hans Küng, please refer to‘Lily's Room' dated 20 June 2008 (http://d.hatena.ne.jp/itunalily2/20080620). (Lily)
Malaysiakini.com （http://www.malaysiakini.com）
Hans Küng: Apostle of peace, 23 December 2005
by Josh Hong
When the United States suddenly found itself lonely and uneasy in the wake of the Soviet demise in the early 1990s, Samuel. P Huntington sought to define a role for the nation that he best loved by encouraging the lone superpower to exercise its hard won authority and provide leadership to its traditional allies.
In other words, the West vs the Rest now that the ‘evil empire’ was no more.
The seemingly unavoidable clash of civilisations, as envisaged by Huntington, aroused one of the most heated debates on world politics. As many were in haste to popularise the theory or at a loss as to how to refute it, Professor Hans Küng, a Catholic priest of Swiss-German origin, for three decades the Director of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies, University of Tübingen, Germany, and founder of the Global Ethic Foundation, called for dialogue among civilisations, religions especially, so as to prevent the clash nightmare from becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
For those who do not know Küng, the septuagenarian theologian is no ordinary priest. An adviser during the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 1965), his “fall from grace” came when the Vatican banned him from theological teaching and training due to his opposing view on papal infallibility. His courage to challenge one of the most jealously defended catholic doctrines and his bravery in defying the entire church establishment resulted in a period of bleakness and depression for him.
Although some liken his expulsion from the power centre as Moses in the wilderness, unlike the wandering prophet who appeared clueless for 40 years, Küng began to probe in a deeper manner into the questions of death and eternal life and found a new meaning in his faith when he started to work towards greater understanding among the religions.
Greatest discovery
Today, Küng consistently reiterates that his greatest discovery is none other than the many ethical traditions that the world’s religions hold in common, which gives rise to his extraordinary optimism in universal peace even in his lifetime.
Interestingly, Küng now seems exonerated after Benedict XVI met with him in September this year, with the new Pope acknowledging that the Vatican, while not ready to discuss the "magisterial" differences that divide Küng and the Catholic Church, Küng’s universal peace endeavour is nevertheless commendable, a clear sign that the pontiff wants to reach out to prominent Catholics who fell from grace under his predecessor.
In a world rife with ideological conflicts, religious strife and military confrontations, suing for peace at times seems futile, while a call for disarmament is invariably ridiculed by warmongering realists. Still, as far as Küng is concerned, the road toward non-violence does not start with disarmament, but with observing ethical principles in the marketplace as well as in one’s private life.
The end of communism signified the ultimate victory of capitalism. Contrary to what Francis Fukuyama has predicted, the Last Man is not standing while yawning over his abundant material comfort, but appears hungry for more. The insatiable needs of the modern world have produced a host of financial scandals on global scale, ranging from Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom to Halliburton.
When Richard Grasso resigned as chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, he was remunerated with a whooping US$187 million pay and pension packet. So astronomical was the figure that Küng opined that “it certainly went against morality”.
Therefore, as many nations extol liberal economy to the status of a Holy Grail, it is all the more pressing for those in high places, from government ministers to corporate executives, to be imbued with ethical standards.
Much like public organisations, human greed and ambitions, with the aid of inadequate checks and balances, can sometimes be the nesting ground for slackness, opportunism and lack of discipline.
As for private life, if the world’s most powerful nation elected a president that showed no qualms in resorting to lies and false accusations for political gain, it would only lead to tyrants making a mockery of the moral high ground claimed by the very same deceiving president himself, thereby putting democracy at risk and creating more problems than the world can solve.
Once devoid of ethical principles, even a usually rational person can easily err and feel no restraint in using dirty tricks just to prove his or her own worth.
Burying the hatchet
Thanks to the invitation by Peter Schier of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, I recently had the rare honour of meeting with Küng in Kuala Lumpur together with a group of journalists from the local press. The theologian-turned-peace-campaigner was here to deliver a speech on the global ethic that he has been working to promote since the 1980s.
It was indeed a pleasant surprise to speak to Küng who, despite having reached a high water mark of prominence and esteem, came across as an extremely humble and friendly person. He is a peer among us, not above us.
Küng’s advance in age clearly has not taken a toll on his intellectual capacity, as he talked enthusiastically about the basic principles of the global ethic, which he repeatedly emphasised as not a new ideoloogy, but already existing in all religions, their undeniable dogmatic or theological differences notwithstanding.
It is Küng’s firm belief that this consensus of values will be a decisive contribution to overcoming the crisis of orientation and domination. As such, Global Ethic is a project that needs more than a decade to be fulfilled; it calls for a change of consciousness which has already made great progress in the last decade.
For those who doubt the feasibility of this noble idea, Küng would point them to two documents that are of particular relevance: A Declaration Toward a Global Ethic adopted by the delegates to the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in September 1993, which was unprecedented in the history of religion, and, secondly, A Call to Our Guiding Institutions, issued by the Third Parliament of the World’s Religions in Cape Town in December 1999.
Although the leitmotif in Küng’s argument can be summed up as “do to others what you would want others do to you”, it remains to be seen as to what extent will his views be shared by the staunchest believers in religions.
Many a Christian from the mainstream churches, for instance, may have a problem with Küng’s eagerness to play down the religious dimensions of Christianity in order to reach out to people of other faiths. For this group of people, salvation is a cardinal principle that can never be compromised.
While Küng calls relentlessly on the world to do more for universal peace, the evangelical church is however constantly mindful of the teaching by Jesus to “make disciples of all nations”. In other words, a born-again Christian is also one who should work hard to add more souls to heaven.
In Küng’s eyes, it would be best for the Christian to live out his or her faith through life witnessing, rather than preaching to others, the superior values of Christianity as the imperialists did in the olden days. There is no better way to avoid a clash than to be humble and tolerant when one proselytising religion meets the other.
Still, I am personally sceptical that the global ethic as a realistic vision would help resolve serious conflicts involving, say, China and Japan. As Küng rightly pointed out, the Europe of the modern time has been successful in creating lasting peace because the two erstwhile arch rivals, Germany and France, were willing to renounce their centuries-long pursuit of dominance and bury their hatches, thereby creating a paradigm shift that has enabled much of the post-war European continent to live in harmony and prosperity.
Nationalism and purity
Unfortunately, such is not the case in East Asia. The Chinese Communist Party, finding its ideology losing appeal with the populace, has been increasingly relying on economic development and nationalism to maintain its legitimacy to rule, while Japan, a Shinto state, continues to believe itself to be a great nation blessed by Ama-Tesaru, the Sun Goddess.
China cannot let go of nationalism because the belief in the dragon race is already in its blood, and Japan will never be forthright in admitting to its war atrocities because doing so will debunk the myth of its being a pure and superior nation.
Would Küng’s effort find a sympathetic ear in the hardliners of these two most powerful and important countries in this part of the world?
Anyway, it was a great pleasure to have exchanged some views and ideas with the eminent yet humble professor. The only regret was, and still is, that there was virtually no Muslim participant in the closed-door session. With most of those present being Christian (including an Eastern Orthodox!), it almost turned into an intra-religious dialogue.
As much of the world immerses in the gracious season of Yuletide this week, it is incumbent on us to work for peaceful co-existence and greater understanding. As Küng has wisely said, there will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions, and there will be no peace among the religions without dialogue and cooperation among the religions and civilisations.
For those who have to struggle between despair and hope, have a joyful Christmas and a blessed new year ahead.
（End）
