By examining the role of religion in interwar Prague, the book provides a fresh perspective on the city's cultural history amidst broader European secularization. It delves into the interplay between politics, architecture, and theology, highlighting how these elements contributed to the symbolic identity of the first Czechoslovak republic. Through biographical studies of key figures like President Tomás Garrigue Masaryk and architect Joze Plecnik, the author reveals the complex, often overlooked religious dimensions of modern Czech elites, challenging the notion of their atheism.
This book takes a new approach to interwar Prague by addressing religion as an integral part of the city's cultural history. Berglund views Prague's cultural history in the broader context of religious change and secularization in 20th-century Europe. Based on detailed knowledge of sources, the monograph explores the interdisciplinary linkages between politics, architecture and theology in the building of symbolism and a "new mythology" of the first Czechoslovak republic (1918-1938). Berglunds text provides an important service for understanding both Czech history as well as current Czech political debate. The author's method can be characterized as culture history, able to connect several disciplines, emphasizing common topic (religion, politics, symbolics). Modern Czech elites, superficially characterized as "ateistic", appears in a new light to be deeply religious, a transition from more traditional, (mostly) Catholic religiosity, to a concept of a new, modern, ethical religion. The study incorporates biographical research, focusing on three principal characters: Tomás Garrigue Masaryk, Czechoslovakia's first president; his daughter Alice Garrigue Masaryková, founding director of the Czechoslovak Red Cross; and Joze Plecnik, the Slovenian architect who directed the renovations of Prague Castle.
