Abstract
The author relates the gripping story of his life against the background of the dramatic changes in society and the church in Central Europe. Born into a secular intellectual family in Prague, he spent his childhood in the period of Stalinism and he came to faith when he reached adulthood and was studying philosophy.
During the brief period of the regime's liberalization at the time of the "TheP rague Spring" he came to know a number of priests who had recently been released from Communist jails. A second twenty-year period of persecution came in the wake of the Russian occupation of August 1968.
Jan Palach's self-immolation in protest was what first inspired Tomáš Halík to become a priest. He was ordained clandestinely in East Germany and was part of the "underground church" for the next eleven years.
Even his own mother was not allowed to know that he was a priest. He took an active part in the events leading up to the fall of the Communist regime in 1989.
His ties with the new President Václav Havel were based on years of friendship and close cooperation. He was able to gain a close acquaintance with Pope John Paul II and a number of other political, cultural and religious figures, including the Dalai Lama.
Since 1989 he has devoted himself chiefly to inter-religious dialogue, visiting all continents, including an expedition to the Antarctic. He describes his sojourns in the Vatican, in Buddhist monasteries in Japan, in a centre of Sunni Islam in Egypt, in Indian ashrams, and in universities in Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India and Africa.
His dramatic account of his unusual life story is interspersed with philosophical meditations and humorous observations.