SOURCE: “Hans Küng: Embattled Teacher and Priest,” in New York Times Book Review, December 19, 1976, pp. 5, 16.

In the following review, Greeley praises Küng's On Being a Christian for the author's scholarly and truthful approach.

The controversial Swiss theologian Hans Küng has written the best defense of traditional Catholic Christianity to appear in this century. Christ Sein sold several hundred thousand copies in its German edition and was on the best seller lists in Germany for several months. It is unlikely, however, that so many American Catholics have the intellectual discipline to plow through a 720-page book on their faith, and more's the pity. They will miss what may well become a religious and spiritual classic.

Küng has earned himself the reputation of being a “radical” by being severely critical of the way authority has been exercised in Rome and by questioning some of the doctrinal...