The 2002 SVU Elias Human Tolerance Award
Goes to Prof. Tomas Halik

At the recommendation of the Ad Hoc Nomination Committee, consisting of Dr. Slavomil Hubalek (Charles Univ.), Dr. Jiri Pehe (New York Univ. in Prague), Dr. Jirina Siklova (Charles Univ.), and Prof. Zdenek Slouka (Lehigh University), SVU Executive Board named Professor Tomas Halik as the winner of the 2002 SVU Andrew Elias Human Tolerance Award.The Committee has been fully acquainted with the life and work of Dr. Tomas Halik, the candidate proposed from within SVU ranks for the Award. The materials before the Committee have reinforced their personal knowledge (some of it reaching back over thirty years) of the candidate as a man of exceptional qualities of humaneness, compassion and tolerance. Tomas Halik has amply demonstrated these qualities at many levels of endeavor. In his functions, all of them voluntary, as the President of the Czech Christian Academy, as a member of the Ecumenical Council established by John Paul II, and a member of the program committee arranging the international meetings of Forum 2000, convoked by President Havel and bringing together personalities of many lands, religions and cultures, Tomas Halik has been consistently one of the strongest voices for tolerance across all human boundaries. In 1998, Halik spent several weeks with monks in a Buddhist monastery in Kyoto, Japan, seeking bases for mutual understanding. As a human being, Tomas Halik has devoted many years to intensive work in anti-alcoholic institutions and with drug addicts and psychopaths, bringing them relief from their misery.

The award which included a check for $1,000 was presented to Prof. Halik at the Plenary session of the SVU World Congress in Plzen, June 20, 2002.

Professor Tomas Halik's CV

Professor Tomas Halik, PhDr., Dr., Dr.hab.

Born on 1 June 1948, Prague, Czechoslovakia.

Studied philosophy (under Jan Patocka), sociology and psychology at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague (received PhDr., in 1972 ). In 1984, passed the boards in clinical psychology. During the Communist regime studied theology clandestinely under Josef Zverina, and, after 1989, at the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome (Th.Lic. 1992). In the autumn of 1992, became Associate Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, and Associate Professor of Applied Theology at the Pontifical School of Theology, Wroclaw (ThDr.hab.). In 1997, became full Professor of Sociology at Charles University.

In 1972-1989, worked at various professions (psychologist at the Institute of the Ministry of Industry, psychotherapist for alcoholics and drug-addicts at the University Hospital, Prague). Clandestinely ordained in Erfurt, in 1978, and worked in the "underground Church" where he was a close colleague of the late Cardinal TomaĹĄek. In 1990â??3, became General Secretary of the Czech Conference of Bishops, Assistant Professor at the Roman Catholic School of Theology, Charles University, and Consultor of the Pontifical Council for Dialogue with Nonbelievers, Rome.

Currently, Head of the Department of the Religious studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague. Rector of the University Church of the Holy Savior, and President of the Czech Christian Academy. (Charles University was founded in 1348 and is the oldest university in east-central Europe and the largest and most important university in the Czech Republic. The Czech Christian Academy is a nonpartisan, ecumenical academic institute, founded in 1990. Active forty towns and cities in the Czech Republic, its main work consists in the organizing of courses, evening lectures, seminars, academic conferences at home and abroad, research and publishing. The Czech Christian Academy initiated the international research project on religion and value-orientation in ten post-Communist countries.)

Member of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences and various academic boards and societies in the Czech Republic and abroad.

Specialization: philosophy and sociology of religion, inter-religious dialogue, relations between religion, culture and politics.

After 1989, has frequently guest-lectured at universities throughout the world - in Europe, the USA, India, Japan, Latin America.

Publications: over 200 publications, including 7 books (in Czech, German, Polish, Italian, and Spanish), textbooks, 32 sections of different books and numbers of articles, beside of over 70 comments and popular articles in newspapers and journals.

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