Eternal Life?: Life After Death as a Medical, Philosophical, and Theological Problem [Paperback]

Hans Kung (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592442099
• ISBN-13: 978-1592442096
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,277,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Küng paints a masterful portrait of the road we have been travelling since the onset of the Industrial Revolution., September 18, 2008

By 

Leopold Boeckl (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eternal Life?: Life After Death as a Medical, Philosophical, and Theological Problem (Paperback)

I was given this book by my father in law at a recent family get together. When I sat down to read it last night, my thinking was I would only be able to read 20 or 30 pages before I would set it aside; after all the book was written by a Catholic theologian I had thought. After having finished the book I have already ordered two more by Küng as I was completely enthralled with his writing, clarity of thought and honest appraisals for how the Church had evolved in separating fact from fiction.

Küng makes so many insightful comments I would have to retell the entire book to really review it properly. Instead I will say that Küng is the first person who I have ever read anywhere who accurately describes the evolution in new thinking from the onset of the Industrial Revolution to present. He eloquently describes the dualism which was set into motion by Marx for a Utopian society on the one hand and Kierkegaard for the individual through existential thinking. Küng does not spend a tremendous amount of energy describing how these two waves in new thinking progressed historically. Instead he opts for carefully inserted quotes which demonstrate the core of thinking from Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Jaspers, and Heidegger culminating with Sartre. Through this approach he clearly shows respect for these individuals while laying out the critical differences in their logic. I was stunned to read such an impartial review of how we got to where we are today.

Küng also clearly shows the historicity of how doctrine evolved and clearly delineates what is faith based. In so doing, he eloquently makes the case for the individual to go beyond evolved dogma as well as why it is critically important for us as human beings to place ourselves inside of the context of the greater universe we inhabit. If Küng was my Parrish priest I would be attending church multiple times a week. He and his crystal clear thinking are exactly what the Church requires to move forward and remain vital instead of the conservative, regressive in reality, direction the Church leadership is currently pursing, and has been for over 30 years now. Without the activities and works for the community made by the local Parishes, the church would be a place where you would find young people today.

Küng makes his case concisely inside of current accepted scholarship. His words don't simply sound true they resonate within anyone who has done reading into any of the thinkers who brought about the eras and the historical time periods which has brought us to this point in history. Küng explains the how and when while he defines that all religions must continue to evolve in order to remain vital for the human family and the communities which they are here to serve and support.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eternal Life: Hope Against, Not Flight from, Doubt and Despair, May 25, 2010

By 

M. L. Asselin (Bethesda, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eternal Life?: Life After Death as a Medical, Philosophical, and Theological Problem (Paperback)

We all die; that is, ironically, a fact of life. We keep our lives busy in part, I think, to keep from thinking about that awful or awesome--depending on how you look at it--time of our existence. And when we do stop to think about it, inevitably the question that surfaces in our minds is, is there life after death? For the religiously inclined, the answer is addressed affirmatively through one's system of beliefs. For the scientist, the response might be agnostic or altogether negative: there's no evidence, pace near-death experiences, of immortality. Sigmund Freud (THE FUTURE OF AN ILLUSION) regarded belief in life after death as wish fulfillment; Ludwig Feuerbach (THOUGHTS ON DEATH AND IMMORTALITY), whose work informed Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, urged turning from heaven-ward things to attend to the needs of earth and humanity. For some 19th and early 20th century thinkers, then, heaven was a delusional concept designed to distract people from their oppressed condition.

Hans Küng's ETERNAL LIFE? looks at the problem of life after death through the prism of this modern skepticism. Originally a set of lectures given in 1981 at the University of Tübingen and then in 1983 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, ETERNAL LIFE? is built like a microscope with three lens: first, medicine and the personal, physical experience of aging, decline, and death; second, the sociological perspective, taking into account Feuerbach, Heinrich Heine, Marx, and Herbert Marcuse as well as the so-called alternative movement (i.e., discontent with society and "the quest for alternative life-goals, life-styles... (p. 188); and third the cosmic dimension, particularly the scientific and theological perspectives. Küng's study, though treating such popular works as Raymond Moody's 1981 LIFE AFTER LIFE, is dense with references to belles lettres, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and physics. (The third part of the book was essentially expanded in Küng's very accessible 2007 book, THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS, which I also recommend.)

In his tripartite argument, Küng makes a very convincing case for the rationality of life after death. Of course, simply leaving the problem at suggesting that one is not crazy to believe in life after death is not a very comforting notion, but the tools of reason cannot make a much more comforting statement than that. Here Küng, a Roman Catholic theologian, explains that faith in Jesus gives critical meaning to life after death. It's not a matter of living one's life simply in expectation of heavenly reward, Küng argues. No, a truly radical acceptance of Jesus means living one's life dedicated to loving God and loving one's fellow human beings (i.e., living the Great Commandment). One ought to be devoted to making the world a better place, knowing well that the odds are stacked against success. Nonetheless, in the ongoing struggle for love and justice, one remembers the hope that Jesus delivers through his death and resurrection.

ETERNAL LIFE? is not easy work at times. Despite a masterful translation, the awkwardness in English of German structures remains. Moreover, this is a work of scholarly inquiry: it's not meant to be a breeze to read. However that may be, the intrepid reader who sticks with it will be challenged, gratified and edified. This book appeared some twenty years before the popular works of the so-called New Atheists (e.g., Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens). Nonetheless, ETERNAL LIFE? holds up well as a rationalist, but ultimately Christian defense of life after death.