Intersections – Strange Bedfellows

strange bedfellows – A pair of people, things, or groups connected in a certain situation or activity but extremely different in overall characteristics, opinions, ideologies, lifestyles, behaviors, etc.

I was surprised to learn of the passing of Catholic theologian Hans Kung. I was grieved as he and I were strange bedfellows. You can read about his amazing life and career HERE.
I found the following quotes reminiscent of my engagement with Kung.

Truth-seeking was the chosen task to which Küng brought his insatiable probing and unquenchable intellect.

… the audience with Paul VI confronted him vividly with the question: For whom was he doing theology? Already in late 1965, Küng understood: “My theology obviously isn’t for the pope (and his followers), who clearly doesn’t want my theology as it is.” On that very day Küng resolved he would do theology “for my fellow human beings … for those people who may need my theology.”

I list Kung’s “The Church” as one of the most influential books in the development of my ecclesiology, ultimately, a key factor shaping my spiritual journey. To understand how ironic that is and just just how strange a bedfellow he was, I need to share the providential nature of our relationship.
For those familiar with my religious heritage in the Church of Christ, you will understand the weirdness of a Catholic theologian being a bedfellow, very strange indeed. In my early experience Catholics were to be avoided (except attractive girls), strange Friday fish eating, beer drinking, rhythm method weirdos, not to mention their seemingly pagan worship practices, eating and drinking the real body and blood of Christ and those inexplicably long masses.If there was anything to be learned from Catholics, it was what not to do.

Those preconceptions remained in my subconscious even after a personal spiritual revival prompted me to return to college after a ten year absence. One of the early courses I took was “Church of Christ” taught by Dr. Everett Ferguson, PhD, a distinguished scholar. The class was eye-opening, to say the least. I still have my handwritten notes. Most surprising was the assigned reading of “The Church” by Catholic theologian Hans Kung. I still remember being shocked by Kung’s bold analysis and critiques of the Church. It began to dawn on me that although “the Church” he was referring to was the Roman Catholic church , the issues he was addressing were echoes of my concerns with the “Church of Christ”, my church. Being in the beginning of my struggle with the incongruity of my church experience and what I was coming to understand from scripture, Kung was a game changer. What a shock to discover your religious heritage’s ecclesiology was closer to Catholicism than the New Testament church which we thought we had restored.

The book I purchased for the class was a paperback edition, worn and marked up, I lost it somewhere along the line. A decade or more later, my ecclesiastical angst re-emerged, unable to locate my book, I purchased the book pictured above. Because The Church is out of print I was pleased to get a used copy and it remains a useful reference, seemingly more relevant than ever.

Perusing some bookmarks and faded highlights, here are excerpts I thought worth sharing:

The problem of God is more important than the problem of the Church; but the latter often stand in the way of the former.

Ther is no doubts that the message of Jesus has had, if not a destructive, at least a disturbing effect on the Church in any age, challenging it, rousing it, goading it into new life; in short, it has always been a “stumbling block”.

The Church is not the kingdom of God, but it looks towards the kingdom of God, waits for it, or rather makes a pilgrimage towards it and is its herald, proclaiming it to the world.
The Church on its pilgrimage is not deserted or forgotten by God; it is not wandering totally in the dark. Even though it is not the kingdom of God which is to come, it is already under the reign of God which has begun; though looking forward to the final victory of the reign of God, it can look back to the decisive victory: in Jesus the Christ; while still wandering in the shadow of death, it has the resurrection not only ahead of it, but its decisive form behind it; in Jesus the risenKyrios.

…by baptism in the spirit received in faith all believers are consecrated as priests. Christians do not stand on the threshold of the temple like impure people begging for grace, in fear and trembling, through the priest as a holy middleman. They themselves stand in the very midst of the holy temple of God, as holy priests chosen by God, able to communicate directly with God.

The Church confronts this ambivalent world with an ultimate freedom; it must not bury itself in the world nor flee from it, it must not abandon itself to the world nor be hostile to it, but it must approve while it denies, and deny while it approves, resisting it while it devotes itself to it and devoting itself to it while it resists it.

The Church does not wish to remain isolated. It wishes to be a vanguard. As a vanguard of mankind the people of God journeys on its way- but where is it going? Once again the question arises: has the Church a future?

Although my encounter with him was a minuscule ripple on the far edges of his influence, I am indebted to Hans Kung. Important as the ecclesiastical understandings I gained from him are, perhaps, the more important lesson came from the realization of how small and sectarian my world was. He was a gateway to an adventure that continues to this day.
Seeking God’s presence can produce some very strange bedfellows.

Still on the journey.