<p>“<i>Touch the Wounds</i> will be a source of great insight and inspiration for seekers, drawn potentially to Christian faith, and will liberate many others from stultifying forms of false certainty. It will open others again to ecumenical exchanges that will enrich their faith. The world needs more Tomáš Halík.” —Charles Taylor, co-author of <i>Reconstructing </i><i>Democracy</i></p>

<p>“We’re part of a world full of wounds. For many people, the dark cloud of pain conceals the certainty of faith; the face of a benevolent God is hidden in the darkness that we are passing through together. But the Easter scene that inspired this book can speak to us with enormous urgency precisely at such a time. It is through Jesus’s wounds that the apostle Thomas sees God.” —from the preface</p>

<p>"One of the most profound meditations on suffering, from a Christian perspective, that I have ever read." —James Martin, SJ, author of <i>Learning to Pray</i></p>

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<p>"Tomáš Halík's <i>Touch the Wounds</i> is an elegant and profound set of meditations on the place and purpose and meaning of suffering. Halík shows that, and how, attention to suffering is attention to Jesus, and, therefore, a means of entry for Christians into the world's healing. It is a lovely book, and an inspiring one." —Paul J. Griffiths, author of <i>Regret: A Theology</i></p>

<p>"Tomáš Halík is one of the most insightful voices in contemporary Catholicism, and his book on the wounded church and sin in the church is a turning point in the effort to make sense of the ecclesial crisis that has taken shape in the last few years: from the new phase in the abuse crisis to the pandemic." —Massimo Faggioli, author of <i>Catholicism and Citizenship</i></p>

<p>"In this deeply personal narrative, Tomáš Halík invokes the figure of Thomas, less to affirm the importance of doubt in religious life than to remind us that Christian faith passes through our wounds and through the reality of pain and suffering. As ever, Halík manages to offer a fresh and hopeful Christian message without condemning the secular world." —Catherine Cornille, co-author of <i>Christian Identity between Secularity and Plurality</i></p>

<p>"What we need now is the voice of a prophet in the tradition of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah, who were unafraid to confront hypocrisy in high places and fearless in identifying the self-inflicted wounds of a society in desperate need of a particular and urgent healing touch. That prophetic voice for our time and our world belongs to Tomáš Halík, an impressive scholar who writes with flawless grace and instinct so that truth is disclosed page after page in his latest, powerful book." —Doris Donnelly, editor of <i>Sacraments and Justice</i></p>

<p>"Tomáš Halík's <i>Touch the Wounds </i>is a masterfully written, personal, and at the same time critical book that brings into dialogue contemporary life experience, biblical message, mystical tradition, and modern criticism of religion, all showing how in the wounds of our world as Christians we touch the wounds of God not by turning away from suffering but by confronting it. A fascinating, challenging, and encouraging vision." —Cardinal Walter Kasper, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity</p>

<p>"Offers profound reflections on faith and its roots in suffering. . . . Halík’s erudition is dizzying . . . with a theological depth that makes for slow, rewarding reading. . . . those seeking deeper Christian insight will find much to gain." —<i>Publishers Weekly</i></p>

<p>"Consistent with his numerous other writings on faith in a post-religious and post-secular age, Halik, a Czech Roman Catholic priest, offers a series of meditative reflections on finding faith amidst our personal, interpersonal, and social wounds. . . . [T]he overall effect is a beautiful and challenging account of a Gospel-inspired faith that highlights the extreme paradox of God becoming flesh, and thus a God who indwells our creaturely vulnerability without reserve." —<em>Theological Studies</em></p>

<p>"A fine resource for Lenten and Eastertide reading—or, for that matter, in any season when wisdom is sought." —<em>Commonweal</em></p>

<p>“Masterfully translated—conveying both the insights and personality of Halík—by the distinguished Gerald Turner.... A balm to the soul for those who are battered by this world and find their own faith wounded.” —<em>Scottish Journal of Theology</em></p>

<p>“A rich tapestry capable of nourishing and sustaining Christian faith and theology in a shifting cultural context. . . . Halík offers hope in rebuilding faith through facing up to the challenges of a future for which our recent past has not fully prepared us.” —<em>Modern Theology</em></p>

<p>"A profound yet accessible meditation on faith in our secular age. ...Halík offers not simply a corrective on how to approach seekers, but also a rich spiritual reflection intended to help us lead with our wounds....Halík’s book is a provocation in the best sense of the term, one that pushes his reader to leave behind a pristine faith that prefers to rest in certainty in exchange for one that asks the 'agonized question' and, like St. Thomas, does not shy from the wounded world." — <i>America</i></p>

In this masterfully written book, Tomáš Halík calls upon Christians to touch the wounds of the world and to rediscover their own faith by loving and healing their neighbors. One of the most important voices in contemporary Catholicism, Tomáš Halík argues that Christians can discover the clearest vision of God not by turning away from suffering but by confronting it. Halík calls upon us to follow the apostle Thomas’s example: to see the pain, suffering, and poverty of our world and to touch those wounds with faith and action. It is those expressions of love and service, Halík reveals, that restore our hope and the courage to live, allowing true holiness to manifest itself. Only face-to-face with a wounded Christ can we lay down our armor and masks, revealing our own wounds and allowing healing to begin. Weaving together deep theological and philosophical reflections with surprising, trenchant, and even humorous commentary on the times in which we live, Halík offers a new prescription for those lost in moments of doubt, abandonment, or suffering. Rather than demanding impossible, flawless faith, we can look through our doubt to see, touch, and confront the wounds in the hearts of our neighbors and—through that wounded humanity, which the Son of God took upon himself—see God.
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Preface to the English-language Edition 1. The Gate of the Wounded 2. Without Distance 3. Arcanum Cordis 4. A Torn Veil 5. A Dancing God 6. Worshipping the Lamb 7. Stigmata and Forgiveness 8. Knocking on the Wall 9. Bodies 10. A Little Place for Truth 11. Veronica and the Imprint of the Face 12. Wounds Transformed 13. The Last Beatitude Notes
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We’re part of a world full of wounds. For many people, the dark cloud of pain conceals the certainty of faith; the face of a benevolent God is hidden in the darkness that we are passing through together. But the Easter scene that inspired this book can speak to us with enormous urgency precisely at such a time. It is through Jesus’s wounds that the Apostle Thomas sees God. Let us not seek God in the storms and earthquakes. A God enthroned somewhere beyond the world, sending upon His children cruel punishments, the like of which would rightly land any parent in court, truly does not exist, thankfully. Atheists rightly maintain that such a god is simply a projection of our fears and desires. The vengeful god used by preachers, who trade on the world’s misfortunes to arouse fear, and exploit it for their religious ends, is simply a product and servant of their own vindictiveness: they use it as a stick to beat people that they hate, and as a curse and punishment for what they themselves reject or fear. Their god of vengeance is simply a fictitious extension of their own malice and vindictiveness. When they brandish a God who punishes us with wars, natural disasters and disease, they commit the sin of invoking God’s name in vain. They are replacing the father of Jesus with a bloodthirsty pagan idol that thrives on the blood of human sacrifice. Like the prophet Elijah on Mount Horeb, we are more likely to find God in a quiet breeze, or in the unaffected expressions of love and solidarity, and in everyday heroism generated in the dark hours of calamities. It is in those expressions of love and service, which restore our hope and the courage to live and not give up, that true holiness manifests itself. That is where God happens. We can observe the wounds of this world in the way that Pilate observed the scourged Jesus: Ecce, homo! Behold the man! Is this man covered in wounds “without dignity, without beauty” really a man still? The mob to which Pilate shows Christ, covered in wounds, is like a wild beast, incensed even more by the smell of blood: Crucify him! But on the way to the crucifixion Veronica emerges from the crowd. Jesus imprints the image of his face forever on the veil of compassion. Whoever wipes the sweat and blood from the wounds of our world may see and preserve the face of Christ. And whoever gazes from the gloom of their doubts – like “doubting Thomas” – at the wounds on the body of our world and in the hearts of our neighbors, may – precisely through that wounded humanity, through that image of the humanity that the Son of God took upon Himself – see God. “I and the Father are one,” said the one who bore our wounds. Scripture doesn’t express the unity of the Father and the Son in dogmatic definitions, but in a dramatic story. Part of that drama are also the moments of painful abandonment, as witness Jesus’s cry on the cross. Sometimes the time between the darkness of the cross and the dawn of Sunday morning is long and arduous. The present book seeks also to address those who are enduring such moments – and it is not intended to offer them “religious opium” – sweet-sounding clichés of tawdry pious reassurance. Let us not expect faith to provide the answers to every question. Instead we should derive from it the courage to step into the cloud of mystery and bear life’s many open questions and paradoxes. St Paul tells us that here on earth we see only in part, as in a mirror, as in a riddle. Faith mustn’t stop seeking and questioning, it must not petrify into an ideology. It must not abandon its openness to an eschatological future.
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780268204907
Publisert
2025-03-01
Utgiver
Vendor
University of Notre Dame Press
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
140 mm
Aldersnivå
00, G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Orginaltittel
Dotkni Se Ran

Forfatter
Oversetter

Om bidragsyterne

Tomáš Halík is a Czech Roman Catholic priest, philosopher, theologian, and scholar. He is a professor of sociology at Charles University in Prague, pastor of the Academic Parish of St. Salvator Church in Prague, president of the Czech Christian Academy, and a winner of the Templeton Prize. His previous books with University of Notre Dame Press, I Want You to Be (2016, 2019) and From the Underground Church to Freedom (2019), were selected as the Foreword Reviews’ INDIES Book of the Year Awards in Philosophy and in Religion, respectively.

Gerald Turner has translated numerous authors from Czechoslovakia, including Václav Havel, Ivan Klíma, and Ludvík Vaculík, among others. He received the US PEN Translation Award in 2004.