01/02/2023, 17:01 I Want You to Be - Reading Religion

American Academy of Religion

 

Home / Religion / I Want You To Be

I Want You to Be
On the God of Love
By: Tomás Halík
Translated by Gerald Turner

200 Pages

HARDCOVER
ISBN: 9780268100728
$25.00
Published By: University of Notre Dame Press
Published: August 2016

FROM PUBLISHER

REVIEW HIDE -

In Tomáš Hálik’s I Want You to Be: On the God of Love we find reflections on love from someone
who has bravely given of himself while living under oppressive regimes. Hálik admits to having
postponed a written work on this subject due to its depth and complexity but thankfully, he has
contributed here a work deserving our attention on the topic of love. In the opening of his book,
Hálik offers a clear statement on the purpose of this work: to learn about the Bible’s sentences on
love, to learn of God’s love and the love of our enemies, and to offer a diagnosis of our times.

https://readingreligion.org/9780268100728/i-want-you-to-be/ 1/3
01/02/2023, 17:01 I Want You to Be - Reading Religion
While clearly drawing from sentences in the Bible, the reader only finds Hálik’s numerous
references to them in the Notes section at the end of the book. Far from being a criticism, it is an
attestation to Hálik’s passion to reach those outside, or on the fringes, of religious traditions.
Identifying with the seeker, Hálik emphasizes the point that the Bible is more about asking
questions than offering explicit answers. It is clear that he is not suggesting one cannot learn
from the Bible’s sentences. On the contrary, he claims that God speaks in the Bible, instructing us
to love Him and our fellow human beings.
Hálik depicts the God of the Bible as one who exceeds human objectification and warns of
possible idolatry in attempting to reduce God to an object, even if this is an object of love. This
caution is intended to encourage us to yearn for God himself, and to turn towards a reduction of
God to mere concepts, which he asserts, began with Aristotle’s concept of God gradually replacing
the God of the Bible. I find this to be a refreshing challenge—to seek God, to yearn for God—in a
manner transcending contentment with only thoughts about God.
If love, as Hálik suggests, is a going out of one’s self and into the other—transcending one’s self—
then the hiddenness of God invites us to go out and seek Him. Evidencing my own tendency to
focus on self, at first glance I expected that the title of this book was refer to God’s desire for me
to be. Hálik is, instead, referring to a longing in our hearts that wants God to be. He says, “If
religious conviction does not comprise compassionate consent, if ‘I know you are’ is not
enlivened by the longing of love, by that ‘I want you to be,’ then faith turns into ideology” (70).
Transcending one’s self in love for the other is evident in Hálik’s life. He served as a pontiff,
appointed advisor, and mediator between adherents of diverse faith affiliations. No doubt, this
appointment was based on Hálik’s sympathy for those who don’t hold to his own views. Hálik does
not see these individuals as enemies, which regrettably is often the designation given to those
whose faith differs from ours. In addressing the subject of enemies, Hálik refers to the biblical
injunction to love one’s enemies, and points out that we cease to have enemies when we decide
not to treat anyone as such. He is not advocating a naïve response to the hostilities directed
towards us by those who regard us as their enemy, but rather to a mindset that refrains from
treating them as our enemy. Hálik also rejects the notion of tolerance as an acceptable response
to others, instead pointing to Jesus’s exemplification of unconditional, boundless love for others.
Hálik’s reminder that love gives priority to the other over self is pertinent for a time when it
seems as if self-interests rule the day.

Seeking to apply his understanding of love in beneficial ways for our culture, Hálik offers a
diagnosis of our times throughout this book, rather than in a designated section. Echoing
Teilhard de Chardin’s assertion that love alone can unify all without destrustion, Hálik sees the
need for a fundamental, unifying spiritual vision in the West, particularly in Europe. He lists that
Christianity, secular humanism, and neo-paganism, are the three major currents in Europe today
and asks the reader which of these provides the greatest scope for “goodness and tenderness”?
Anticipating that the achievement of unity in answering this question will be a long and arduous
one journey, he appeals to us all to persist in the quest to find it.
How can we, as a society, achieve unity in our vision of goodness and tenderness? I Want You to
Be contains the answer. By living a life of unconditional, boundless love for the other we will
present the world with a tangible vision of goodness and tenderness, and we can hope and pray
that our activities in love will advance unity in our divisive times. In the wake tragedies as the
recent Las Vegas mass shooting, it would appear that love is insufficient to eradicate evil. Yet,
near the beginning of the book, Hálik points to the source of goodness, and it is here that we find
hope. In a world in which evil persists, its defeat comes in its inherently temporal condition; it is
finite. Love outlasts. “Love never ends” (1 Cor. 13:8).

Kevin Staley is an independent scholar.

Date Of Review:
October 13, 2017

AUTHOR(S) SHOW +

RELATED BOOKS

https://readingreligion.org/9780268100728/i-want-you-to-be/ 2/3
01/02/2023, 17:01 I Want You to Be - Reading Religion

 

READING RELIGION NEWSLETTER

Subscribe to our newsletter and receive updates on new books, new reviews, and more.

SUBMIT

You can unsubscribe at any time. We will never share or sell your e-mail address.

PRIVACY POLICY TERMS OF USE LOGIN MY ACCOUNT

Visit other AAR publications

© 2023 Reading Religion. All Rights Reserved. ISSN 2475-207X

Powered by Supadu

https://readingreligion.org/9780268100728/i-want-you-to-be/ 3/3