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The aim of the paper is to develop at least a part of a voice which is still difficult to understand in the Czech language environment, the voice of the others, (ex-rivals), the ‘expelledʼ, and to anchor it in the work and politics of remembering, registering and writing history of one specific author (we are talking about the continuity of perspective: about fidelity to images, local mythology, its logic). For thirty years, Alfred Klaar (born as Karpeles in 1848 in Prague) co-established Prague discourse in German language from various positions (as a journalist, theatre critic, representative of various societies, ceremony speaker, associate professor of the local German polytechnic etc.). When he moved to Berlin in July 1899, he was almost fifty-one years old. He left his home (both in the narrow sense of the word, as well as the wider sense of ‘Austrian homeʼ, so important to him), but he always kept the world he had lived in for so long in his mind and preserved many links with it in spite of the geographical distance. He also returned to his homeland on various occasions (funerals and other ceremonies, lectures) and he also remained talked about primarily among the Prague German circles; as a piece of memorabilia he was dusted and remembered in stories, and at the same time rightfully seen and honoured as a foreign envoy and speaker of compatriot cultural and political interests. Klaar spoke about Prague, his ‘father townʼ, and the lands near the Prussian border through the history of the German-speaking enclave, while Czechs only occurred sporadically in his retrospect writing. He repeated his thesis about an environment destroyed by ‘Slavic egoismʼ and belligerence, he spoke of the role of the German community in Czech lands as a heroic cultural mission, ungratefully displaced by the dominant policy of Czechisation in the second half of the 19th century, which strived to ‘impress upon the city a unilateral Slavic characterʼ. Only with reluctance did he adapt to the factual geopolitical development — he saw the post-war situation of the German minority in Czechoslovakia as a continuation of unfair marginalisation of his fellow countrymen.

Claudelʼs geopolitics are torn between the founding myth of a Catholic central Europe, agitated by heresy and schism, and a disenchanted and melodramatic realism. His writing incorporates his lived experience of Bohemia in Prague, then of Poland in Germany, in order to idealize it in his spiritual poetry, critique it in his diary, and reveal its tragic impasses in his theater.

The paper deals with the sacrament of baptism in three perspectives. First it shows how baptism is incorporated in the historical existence of a Christian and constitutes the foundational event not only of the history of the human person in general, but of the history of salvation of every human person. The second perspective develops the soteriological character of baptism. In light of Christ’s salutary work seen within the so called “soteriological arch” (H. U. von Balthasar) the scope of transformation of the human subject is shown. The third part perceives the human subject incorporated by the Holy Spirit in the whole of the Church which is sacramentally ordered. The conclusion summarizes the basic theses of the paper. Patřit Kristu a patřit do církve: příběh každého křesťana. Ekleziologická reflexe nad svátostí křtu Článek pojednává o svátosti křtu ve trojí perspektivě. Nejprve ukazuje, jak se křest začleňuje do dějinné existence křesťana a vytváří základní událost nejen obecně dějin lidské osoby, ale dějin spásy každé lidské osoby. Druhá perspektiva rozvádí soteriologický rys křtu. Ve světle Kristova spásného díla, nahlédnutého v rámci tzv. soteriologického oblouku (H. U. von Balthasar) je ukázán dosah proměny lidského subjektu. Třetí část nahlíží lidský subjekt Duchem svatým začleněný do celku církve, jež je uspořádána jako svátostný řád. Závěr shrnuje základní teze článku.