Touch the Wounds - by Tomás Halík (Hardcover)

About the Book

In this deeply personal narrative, Tomas Halik 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, Halik manages to offer a fresh and hopeful Christian message without condemning the secular world. --Catherine Cornille, co-author of Christian Identity between Secularity and Plurality

Book Synopsis

In this masterfully written book, Tomás 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, Tomás 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.

Review Quotes

"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." --America

"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." --Scottish Journal of Theology

"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." --Modern Theology

"A fine resource for Lenten and Eastertide reading--or, for that matter, in any season when wisdom is sought." --Commonweal

"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." --Theological Studies

"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." --Publishers Weekly

"In this deeply personal narrative, Tomás 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 Christian Identity between Secularity and Plurality

"One of the most profound meditations on suffering, from a Christian perspective, that I have ever read." --James Martin, SJ, author of Learning to Pray

"Tomás 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 Catholicism and Citizenship

"Tomás Halík's Touch the Wounds 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

"Tomás Halík's Touch the Wounds 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 Regret: A Theology

"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 Tomás 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 Sacraments and Justice

"Touch the Wounds 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 Tomás Halík." --Charles Taylor, co-author of Reconstructing Democracy

"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

About the Author

Tomás 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 and From the Underground Church to Freedom, won the Foreword Reviews' INDIES Book of the Year Awards in Philosophy and in Religion, respectively.

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