Tomas Halik

Inmitten der gegenwartigen Debatte uber Glaube und Unglaube lehrt Tomas Halik, dass Gott uns auffordert, mit unseren Zweifeln auszuharren, sie in uns zu tragen und zuzulassen, dass sie uns zur Reife fuhren. Wer glaubt, muss grosse Geduld haben konnen, denn angesichts von Gottes Schweigen sind Glaube, Hoffnung und Liebe drei Aspekte von Geduld. So wie in der biblischen Erzahlung der Zollner Zachaus sein Leben andert, konnen auch wir uns die Botschaft Jesu zu Herzen nehmen. Und Christen sollen den Menschen, die wie der Zollner Zachaus in der biblischen Erzahlung von den Kirchen Distanz bewahren, verstehende Nahe anbieten.

In his two previous books translated into English, Patience with God and Night of the Confessor, best-selling Czech author and theologian Tomáš Halík focused on the relationship between faith and hope. Now, in I Want You to Be, Halík 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. Halík 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, Halík 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.

Tom s Hal k 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, Tom s Hal k 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, Hal k explains. It is a difficult way that offers an unclear immediate future, but it is ultimately the only honest way.