Abstract
The monograph offers a detailed introduction to the life of Josef Zvěřina during the years 1913-1967, provides a bibliography of his published works (including samizdat) and holographs (typescripts), and offers a diachronic analysis of the material. The first two aspects, although of relatively autonomous value, serve the third: the biographic and bibliographic study has a propedeutic function in attempting to grasp the meaning of Zvěřina's reflections.
The history of his work and his character become, therefore, the history of the knowledge that he lived. This precise connection between Zvěřina's life and his reflections is hinted at by the words "courage to be the Church", by which he himself named one of his most famous studies and which appear in the title of this book.
These words declare that Josef Zvěřina "was the Church" in an utterly exceptional way and that he also reflected this "being the Church".