Tomáš Halík Books

In his two previous books translated into English,Patience with God and Night of the Confessor, best-selling Czech author and theologian Tomas Halik focused on the relationship between faith and hope. Now, in I Want You to Be, Halik examines the connection between faith and love, meditating on a statement attributed to St. Augustine- amo, volo ut sis, I love you: I want you to be- and its importance for contemporary Christian practice. Halik suggests that because God is not an object, love for him must be expressed through love of human beings. He calls for Christians to avoid isolating themselves from secular modernity and recommends instead that they embrace an active and loving engagement with nonbelievers through acts of servitude. At the same time, Halik critiques the drive for mere material success and suggests that love must become more than a private virtue in contemporary society. I Want You to Be considers the future of Western society, with its strong division between Christian and secular traditions, and recommends that Christians think of themselves as partners with nonbelievers. Halik's distinctive style is to present profound insights on religious themes in an accessible way to a lay audience. As in previous books, this volume links spiritual and theological/philosophical topics with a tentative diagnosis of our times. This is theology written on one's knees; Halik is as much a spiritual writer as a theologian. I Want You to Be will interest both general and scholarly readers interested in questions of secularism and Christianity in modern life.

Tomas Halik is a wise guide for the post-Christian era, and never more so than in his latest work, a thought-provoking and powerful reflection on the relationship between faith, paradox, change, and resurrection. As the challenges of cultural secularization and dwindling congregation size confront religious communities across North America and Europe, and the Catholic Church in particular, Tomas Halik is a prophetic voice of hope. He has lived through the political oppression and intolerance of religion that defined Communist Czechoslovakia, and he draws from this experience to remind readers that not only does crisis lead to deeper understanding but also that any living religion is a changing religion. The central messages of Christianity have always seemed impossible, from peace and forgiveness in the face of a harsh world to love and self-sacrifice despite human selfishness to the victory of resurrection through the defeat of the cross. Acceptance of paradox therefore is the way forward, Halik explains. It is a difficult way that offers an unclear immediate future, but it is ultimately the only honest way.

For all the debate about belief and nonbelief in today’s world—and how everyone becomes pigeonholed by one or the other— Tomáš Halík teaches that God requires us to persevere with our doubts, carry them in our hearts, and allow them to lead us to maturity. For Halík, patience is the main difference between faith and atheism. Faith, hope, and love are three aspects of patience in the face of God’s silence, which is interpreted as “the death of God” by atheists and is not taken seriously enough by fundamentalists.Using the gospel story of Jesus’s encounter with Zacchaeus, Halík issues an invitation to all people who stand (like Zacchaeus did) on the sideline—curious but noncommittal. The fact that Jesus gravitated to the poor and the marginalized means that he also has a special place in his heart for diligent seekers on the margins of the community of believers.

International best-selling author and theologian Tomas Halik shares for the first time the dramatic story of his life as a secretly ordained priest in Communist Czechoslovakia. Inspired by Augustine's candid presentation of his own life, Halik writes about his spiritual journey within a framework of philosophical theology; his work has been compared to that of C. S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, and Henri Nouwen. Born in Prague in 1948, Halik spent his childhood under Stalinism. He describes his conversion to Christianity during the time of communist persecution of the church, his secret study of theology, and secret priesthood ordination in East Germany (even his mother was not allowed to know that her son was a priest). Halik speaks candidly of his doubts and crises of faith as well as of his conflicts within the church. He worked as a psychotherapist for over a decade and, at the same time, was active in the underground church and in the dissident movement with the legendary Cardinal Tomasek and Vaclav Havel, who proposed Halik as his successor to the Czech presidency. Since the fall of the regime, Halik has served as general secretary to the Czech Conference of Bishops and was an advisor to John Paul II and Vaclav Havel. Woven throughout Halik's story is the turbulent history of the church and society in the heart of Europe: the 1968 Prague Spring, the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the self-immolation of his classmate Jan Palach, the flying university, the 1989 Velvet Revolution, and the difficult transition from totalitarian communist regime to democracy. Thomas Halik was a direct witness to many of these events, and he provides valuable testimony about the backdrop of political events and personal memories of the key figures of that time. This volume is a must-read for anyone interested in Halik and the church as it was behind the Iron Curtain, as well as in where the church as a whole is headed today.

Beichtväter haben ihre eigene Weise der Wahrnehmung - so Tomás Halík nach Tausenden von Beichtgesprächen. Wenn er spätabends nach Hause kommt, wirken die Gespräche in ihm nach. Lebensprobleme und Glaubenszweifel, moralische und menschliche Abgründe wurden ihm anvertraut, und oft stellt er die Frage, wie die Gläubigen aus ihrer persönlichen Krise gestärkt und gereift hervorgehen können. Aus diesem Erfahrungsschatz heraus ist dieses Buch geschrieben, in dem auch die Ereignisse der Welt und akute gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen aus der Perspektive des Beichtvaters betrachtet werden. Zugute kommt Tomás Halík hierbei die Einübung in ein genaues Hören, das unmerkliche Erschütterungen, leise Zwischentöne und das, was zwischen den Zeilen steht, wahrzunehmen vermag.

Inmitten der gegenwärtigen Debatte über Glaube und Unglaube lehrt Tomáš Halík, dass Gott uns auffordert, mit unseren Zweifeln auszuharren, sie in uns zu tragen und zuzulassen, dass sie uns zur Reife führen. Wer glaubt, muss große Geduld haben können, denn angesichts von Gottes Schweigen sind Glaube, Hoffnung und Liebe drei Aspekte von Geduld. So wie in der biblischen Erzählung der Zöllner Zachäus sein Leben ändert, können auch wir uns die Botschaft Jesu zu Herzen nehmen. Und Christen sollen den Menschen, die wie der Zöllner Zachäus in der biblischen Erzählung von den Kirchen Distanz bewahren, verstehende Nähe anbieten.

Muszę przyznać, że nie upatruję swojej misji w tym, by 'nawracać nawróconych', troszczyć się o porządne owce w stadzie, ani też w prowadzeniu ustawicznych polemik i sporów z przeciwnikami. Czuję, że jestem tu przede wszystkim po to, by zaproponować rozumiejącą bliskość tym, którzy mają opory przed włączeniem się w szeregi rozradowanych tłumów i pod rozwinięte sztandary jakichkolwiek barw. Owi Zacheusze, ludzie poszukujący i pełni ciekawości, chcą równocześnie zachować dystans i obserwować wszystko z lotu ptaka; jednak dziwna mieszanina pytań i oczekiwań, zainteresowania i nieśmiałości, a czasem może nawet poczucia winy i jakiejś niestosowności trzyma ich za zasłoną liści sykomory. Lubię Zacheuszów; myślę, że posiadam dar ich rozumienia. Być może wielu ludziom wydają się 'wyniośli', ale moje doświadczenie mówi, że nie czynią tego z pychy, lecz raczej z jakiegoś zażenowania; być może ich niechęć do tłumów oraz haseł i sztandarów bierze się z przeświadczenia, że prawda jest zbyt krucha, by można ją było skandować na ulicach. Tomáš Halík (ur. 1948), czeski ksiądz katolicki, potajemnie wyświęcony na kapłana w czasach komunizmu, wykładowca Uniwersytetu Karola, rektor praskiego kościoła Najświętszego Salwatora, aktywnie uczestniczy w życiu publicznym, był jednym ze społecznych doradców prezydenta Václava Havla. Laureat Nagrody Tempeltona w 2014 r.