The Church (Die Kirche) was published by Herder Verlag in 1967 (English translation by Ray and Rosaleen Ockenden published by Sheed and Ward in 1968), and it represents Küng’s most systematic attempt to articulate what the church should be — as opposed to what it has historically been.
Küng argues that the New Testament knows nothing of the hierarchical, juridical institution that the Catholic Church became over the centuries. The earliest Christian communities were charismatic, egalitarian, and organized around service rather than authority. The development of hierarchy (bishops, the papacy, ecclesiastical law) was a historical process — not a divine institution — and what history created, history can reform.
The book proposes a church governed by collegiality (shared authority between Pope and bishops), synodality (the participation of the whole people of God in decision-making), and subsidiarity (decisions made at the lowest appropriate level). Küng envisions a church that is genuinely ecumenical (open to dialogue with other Christians and other religions), genuinely democratic (accountable to its members), and genuinely prophetic (willing to speak truth to power rather than accommodating itself to worldly authority).
Collecting The Church
First English edition (Sheed and Ward, London, 1968): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First English edition in dust jacket: $15–$35
- First German edition (Herder, 1967): $20–$50
- Paperback editions: $5–$10