Küng – Der Anfang aller Dinge. Section C, pt 3 of 3.

This is the final part of my overview of section C in Küng's, Der Anfang aller Dinge. If any want the German translated, leave a note in the comments.

Part 6 (of 6) of section C

According to Küng, the message of Genesis, that science can neither prove nor disprove, is ‘In the beginning, God created the world’ (a rather unfortunate typo occurs here that the German editors missed: ‘Im Anfang der Welt is Gott’!! p. 139). Furthermore, in light of the previous discussion, it is clear that creation is not just something in the past, but something that continues; there is creatio continua as well as ex nihilo (of course, see Moltmann, Gott in der Schöpfung for more on this). Nice dogmatic statements. But all of this still begs the question to which Küng will turn to in the final part of section C: ‘What is the meaning of faith in a Creator God today?’

His answer: It should be understood that not scientific, but rather existential questions are addressed by the biblical authors and editors. The meaning of the biblical account of creation is that it gives life orientation, not scientific facts: ‘Es läßt den Menschen einen Sinn im Leben und im Evolutionsprozeß’ (142). To quote Küng at more length:

‘Das Ganze stammt nicht nur aus einem Urknall [Big Bang], sondern einem Ur-sprung: aus jenem ersten schöpferischen Grund der Gründe, den wir Gott, eben den Schöpfergott, nennen ... Auch wenn ich dies nicht beweisen kann, so kann ich es doch mit gutem Grund bejahen: in jenem für mich so vernünftigen, geprüften, aufgeklärten Vertrauen, in welchem ich schon Gottes Existenz bejahte ... Nur so, scheint mir, wird uns das Universum plausibel in seiner Existenz als Kosmos: in seinem mathematisch geordneten, hochkomplexen und ungeheuer dynamischen Wesen’ (ibid., italics his).

Thus, to believe in a Creator doesn’t mean to believe this or that myth literally, but invites us to trusting faith in the wider meaning and orientation in life it offers, and thus concretely in God himself– and not just for our sakes, but also for the good of all our fellow humans, and the environment.

But if evolutionary theory is to be accepted, in what way, then, are we to understand God's role in the evolution of life on our planet? In the next section, Küng turns his attention to the question of what in English speaking circles has been called ‘theistic evolution’.