Abstract

In many of his writings Jan Patočka dealt with christianity. This article presents his meditation as it developed since beginnings of his work till the famous texts he wrote in last period of his thinking. We interpret the whole philosophical move as the way from polemic to interpretation and from periphery to center. In his first writings Patočka mostly argues with theologians about mainly marginal themes, but soon he turns to the core of christianity and tries to interpret it according to his phenomenological philosophy. In his last works Patočka considers the strictly demythologized christianity as one of the most potent forms of care for the soul, which for him meant the tradition of european spiritual life. So the christianity, especially the idea of sacrifice, gets into the very center of Patočka’s thinking. Our article advises of the crucial, but probably also the weak point of Patočka’s approach: his reluctancy to ideas of personal god and revelation.