Abstract
Zdeněk Bonaventura Bouse OFM (1918-2002) belonged among the leading Czech theologians of the second half of the 20th century. He was an author of specialized texts of various features, from letters and homilies to dogmatic reflections and essays on liturgy.
Most of his works were published in the books Small Catholic Liturgy and Epilegomena. The development of his theological reflection is distinctly divided into two phases.
The first one is close to the so-called manualistic theology with elements of certain mysticism. The second one, which followed his second converse, distinguished itself with a considerable tendency towards progressive theology.
The author let himself be influenced by a programme of historic and critical reading of the Holy Scripture, demythologization and de-religiousness of Christianity and also by a re-discovering of its eschatological spirit that was declared by protestant theologians of the first half of the 20th century. He constructed his theology so that it would support the goal to which he wanted to aim the church of that time - that is the idea of the need of a permanent purification and reformation of the church community.
The second part of this monograph deals with the development and form of this theology. The third part features documents on Bouše's life and reflections.
The survey of his written work and the list of used literature follow.