Not to abolish but to fulfil

Jesus apparently cannot be fitted in anywhere: neither with the rulers nor with the rebels, neither with the moralizers nor with the silent ascetics. He turns out to be provocative, both to right and to left. Backed by no party, challenging on all sides: “the man who fits no formula.” He is neither a philosopher nor a politician, neither a priest not a social reformer... He is on a different plane: apparently closer than the priests to God, freer than the ascetics in regard to the world, more moral than the moralists, more revolutionary than the revolutionaries. Thus he has depths and vastnesses lacking in others.

Quote: Hans Küng, On Being a Christian, London: Collins, 1977, 212.