Hans Küng’s influence on the church and its theology in the 20th-century theology has been immense. It has also not been without controversy, from his role at Vatican II to the loss of his teaching ...licence and his often-combative relationship with Benedict XVI. In 2021 Hans Küng died at the age of 93. This article offers an autoethnographic response to his work experienced over roughly two decades, from my early days as a theology student, struggles with Church authority, to personal illness. Küng’s work provided a reference point for many of the challenges faced in ‘being a Christian’. The first part of the article establishes an autoethnographic methodological approach, leading to the exploration of four key texts from Küng, highlighting their general value while also noting their connection to my own theological journey. By examining Küng’s work in connection with my own life, I hope to make an argument for the continued relevance of his core ideas, while also introducing his life and work more broadly to those unfamiliar with Küng and his contribution.Contribution This article offers key insights into the theology and relevance of Hans Küng’s work from an autoethnographic perspective. It engages with some of the key texts in Küng’s oeuvre, with the goal of personal and societal changes in mind. It has been written in light of Küng’s recent death in 2021.
The nature of suffering and the problem of evil have been perennial issues for many of the world’s religious traditions. Each in their own way has sought to address this problem, whether driven by ...the all too present reality of suffering or from philosophical and religious curiosities. The Christian tradition has offered numerous and diverse responses to the problem of evil. The free-will response to the problem of evil, with its roots in Augustine, has dominated the landscape in its attempt to justify evil and suffering as a result of the greater good of having free will. John Hick offers a ‘soul-making’ response to the problem of evil as an alternative to the free will response. Neither is effective in dealing with two key issues that underpin both responses – omnipotence and omniscience. In what follows I will contrast a process theological response to the problem of evil and suffering, and how it is better placed in dealing with both omnipotence and omniscience. By refashioning God as neither all-knowing nor all-powerful, process theodicy moves beyond the dead ends of both the free will and soul-making theodicy. Indeed, a process theodicy enables us to dismount the omnibus in search of a more holistic, and realistic, alternative to dealing with the problem of evil and suffering.
A 12-week course of recombinant human growth hormone is an effective but expensive therapy for established HIV-related wasting. Wasting in HIV disease is often episodic, coinciding with bouts of ...acute opportunistic infection. We hypothesized that a short course of growth hormone, targeted at the time of opportunistic infection, might improve protein metabolism thereby reducing lean tissue loss.
HIV-infected men with acute opportunistic infections, who received standard antimicrobial treatment for their infection as well as intensive nutritional counselling and oral energy supplements, were randomized to receive growth hormone or placebo for 14 days. Principal assessments were protein metabolism (measured by 13C-leucine infusion), body composition (measured by DEXA) and safety.
There were no significant changes in outcome parameters in the placebo group (n = 11). In the growth hormone group (n = 9), protein catabolic rate decreased by 60% in the fasted state (P = 0.02 versus placebo), lean body mass increased by 2.2 kg (P = 0.03 versus baseline) and fat mass decreased by 0.7 kg (P = 0.002 versus baseline). There was no increase in adverse or serious adverse events in the growth hormone as compared with the placebo group.
A two-week course of growth hormone at the time of acute opportunistic infection in HIV-infected patients improves protein metabolism and body composition during therapy and appears to be safe. This may represent a rational and economical approach to the use of growth hormone therapy.
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