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Informationen zum Autor TOMÁŠ HALÍK worked as a psychotherapist during the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia and at the same time was secretly ordained as a Catholic priest and active in the underground church. Since the fall of the regime, he has served as general secretary to the Czech Conference of Bishops and was an adviser to Václav Havel. He has lectured at many universities throughout the world and is currently a professor of philosophy and sociology at Charles University. His books, which are bestsellers in his own country, have been translated into many languages and have received several literary prizes. Klappentext Tomáš Halík 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, Tomáš Halík 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, Halík explains. It is a difficult way that offers an unclear immediate future, but it is ultimately the only honest way.. 1 . The Confessor’s Night The faith spoken of throughout this book (and which gave rise to it) is paradoxical in nature. One must therefore use paradoxes in order to write about it honestly and not superficially, and one can only live it—honestly and not superficially—as a paradox. It’s conceivable that some poetical “religion of nature” of the romantics or some pedagogical “religion of morality” of the Enlightenment might manage without paradoxes, but not a Christianity worthy of the name. At the core of Christianity is the enigmatic Easter story—that great paradox of victory through defeat. I want to meditate on these mysteries of faith—as well as on many problems of our world, which these mysteries illuminate—with the help of two clues—two paradoxical statements from the New Testament. The first is Jesus’ “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible”;1 the second is Saint Paul’s “for when I am weak, then I am strong.”2 The books that I have written here in the summertime solitude of a forest hermitage in the Rhineland are each of a different genre but they all have something in common: it has always been my intention to share experience from different areas of my activity and thereby also, from another viewpoint, to help diagnose the present-day climate—“to read the signs of the times.” On this occasion, as the title of the book implies, I wish to share my experience as a confessor. In order to forestall any misapprehensions or possible disappointment on the part of readers: this book will contain advice to neither confessors nor those who confess, and in no way will it lift the veil on what is said in confession, which is safeguarded, as is well known, by a pledge of absolute discretion. What I would like to share is how the present period—this world and its extrinsic and intrinsic aspects—is viewed by someone who is accustomed to listening to others as they acknowledge their faults and shortcomings, as they confide their conflicts, weaknesses, and doubts, but also their longing for forgiveness, reconciliation, and inner healing—for a fresh start. For many years of...
