Theological autobiography: Hans Küng

The best recent theological autobiography is—by a long shot—Hans Küng’s splendid work, My Struggle for Freedom: Memoirs(2003). This is not only a beautifully written, immensely engaging autobiography, but it’s also the perfect introduction to all Küng’s early theological work—his masterful books on Barth, Hegel, Vatican II, and ecclesiology.

Küng also offers penetrating insights into some of the most important theological developments in recent history—most notably, Vatican II. Through Küng’s eyes, you meet theologians like Karl Rahner, Karl Barth, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Yves Congar, Ernst Käsemann, and, not least of all, Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI).

While this volume centres everywhere on the theme of “freedom,” the theme of the second and final volume of Küng’s memoirs will be “truth.”