This month, the U.S. Catholic Book Club selected international best-selling author and theologian Tomáš Halík’s book, I Want You to Be: On the God of Love, as their featured August title. Originally published in 2016, the University of Notre Dame Press released a paperback edition of the critically acclaimed book in 2019. I Want You to Be received the Catholic Press Association First Place Book Award in Theology in 2017 and Foreword Reviews’ INDIES Gold Book of the Year Award in Philosophy in 2016.
In I Want You to Be, Halík examines the connection between faith and love, meditating on a statement attributed to St. Augustine—amo, volo ut sis, “I love you: I want you to be”—and its importance for contemporary Christian practice. Halik’s distinctive style is to present profound insights on religious themes in an accessible way to a lay audience. As in previous books, this volume links spiritual and theological/philosophical topics with a tentative diagnosis of our times. This is theology written on one’s knees; Halik is as much a spiritual writer as a theologian. I Want You to Be will appeal to readers interested in questions of secularism and Christianity in modern life.
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 by St. Salvator Church in Prague, president of the Czech Christian Academy, and a winner of the Templeton Prize. His books, which are bestsellers in his own country, have been translated into nineteen languages. He recently published the English translation of his memoir From the Underground Church to Freedom.
To read along with this month’s U.S. Catholic Book Club selection, you can purchase your copy of I Want You to Be here, or wherever books are sold. We encourage you to support your local bookstores where you can purchase this book and many others either at the store or online. Book Club questions are available here.