ABSTRACT
Edvard Kocbek studied French, taught French, translated French literature, sojourned four times in France, attentively read Vercors, and maintained contact with French intellectuals throughout his lifetime. When the Second World War broke out, similar questions involving Christian faith and action also faced Catholic intellectuals such as Mounier, Domenach, and the other initial contributors to Espritwho — in a few cases, after being temporarily attracted to the Vichy regime — had likewise joined the French Resistance. Mounier had been pondering the opposition, or rather the bridges, between Christianity and action as early as his first article, "Refaire la Renaissance". Already caught up in action by 1937, when his article "Reflections on Spain" criticized Spanish Catholic priests for defending Franco and provoked great controversy among Slovene Catholics, Kocbek went on to ponder his own acts during his fighting as a leader of the Slovene partisan forces; that is, he analyzed them both in situ and long afterward, retrospectively.
