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Swiss Roman Catholic theologian. An ordained priest, he taught at the Roman Catholic faculty at Tübingen until his status as an approved teacher was withdrawn by church authorities in 1979 and he moved to the Institute for Ecumenical Research at Tübingen. The range of his work is unusually broad, and works such as On Being a Christian of 1971, in presenting Christianity as relevant to the concerns of modern, humanist contemporary culture, have attracted a popular as well as a scholarly readership. A champion of theological reform in the Roman Catholic church, he has argued for a return to Scripture and the historical Jesus, as opposed to ecclesiastical tradition and papal infallibility, as the final authority in matters of faith and doctrine; he has also called for greater openness to the insights of modern rationalism and critical methods. His catholicity and progressive views have made him a pioneer of the ecumenical movement. In Council, Reform and Reunion (1961), he argued for even more radical reforms than those introduced at the Second Vatican Council, at which he was present. In Justification (1957, trans. 1964), he sought to demonstrate that the church's position on this controversial doctrine was originally similar to that of the Protestant church. Other works include Infallible? (1970), Does God Exist? (1978, trans. 1980) and Structures of the Church (1962). ... log in or subscribe to read full text