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Tony Blair will “declare himself Roman Catholic” once he leaves Downing Street. That’s the reported view of Father Michael Seed, who is without peer in luring high-profile figures into the church.But another Catholic priest, hundred of miles away in the German town of Tübingen, may yet have a far more influential role in Blair’s future.
Professor Hans Küng is widely regarded as the most influential living Christian theologian.
Although, where the Vatican is concerned, for influential read dangerous: after his 1971 book questioning the doctrine of papal infallibility Küng was stripped of his licence to teach as a Roman Catholic theologian.
But his magisterial inquiries into the meaning of God and the nature of religion place him in the pantheon of modern religious thinkers and give him a global audience.
Less well known is a friendship with Blair, cemented at private meetings at Downing Street.
It’s Küng’s decade-long quest into what the great religions share that inform plans for the Blair Foundation, designed to foster understanding between Judaism, Islam and Christianity, the three Abrahamic faiths.
As president of the Global Ethic Foundation, Küng has been laying what he believes is critical ground if the peoples of the world are to coexist peacefully.
“There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue between religions,” the 79-year-old professor says – and popular depictions of Islam as a violent, backward and dangerous religion are not only unfair but harmful for our global future.
In his new book, Islam, Past Present and Future (Oneworld Publications) Küng sets out to explore “the centre and foundation of Islam, what must be unconditionally preserved”.
Many see Islam as stubbornly medieval, but Küng traces a series of historical “paradigms” reshaping Islam from the original 7th century community of the Prophet Muhammad via the expansionist Islam of the Middle Ages to the present day when, popular opinion and the Pentagon notwithstanding, many Islams exist for different Muslims.
Turkey’s struggle to succeed as a secular Muslim state is a leitmotif for an authentic Islam that could find itself at ease in the contemporary world. “Many Muslims,” he says, “feel an urgent need for renewal and reformation.”
There was widespread disbelief at the news that Küng had been one of the new Pope Benedict’s first supper guests, although they had once worked together as academics. But Küng sees little chance he will be welcomed back as a teacher in the church.
“We have diametrically opposed positions on church reform but we agree on the need for dialogue between the religions and for a global ethic between the faiths,” he explains.
“It would be a good signal for many Catholics if he welcomed me back but I don’t think he will and I don’t look for it.”
As for the outgoing British prime minister, Küng applauds his role as a peacemaker between faith traditions in Northern Ireland while lamenting his “historic mistake to follow Bush into war”.
But he hasn’t written him off.
“He is an ethical person with charisma, he could become a worker for peace, maybe not in the Middle East but certainly in Africa.”
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