Six million people visit Prague Castle each year. Here is the story of how this ancient citadel was transformed after World War I from a neglected, run-down relic into the seat of power for independent Czechoslovakia-and the symbolic center of democratic postwar Europe. The restoration of Prague Castle was a collaboration of three remarkable figures in twentieth-century east central Europe: Tomas Masaryk, the philosopher who became Czechoslovakia's first president; his daughter Alice, a social worker trained in the settlement houses of Chicago who was founding director of the Czechoslovak Red Cross and her father's trusted confidante; and the architect, Joze Plecnik of Slovenia, who integrated reverence for Classical architecture into distinctly modern designs. Their shared vision saw the Castle not simply as a government building or historic landmark but as the sacred center of the new republic, even the new Europe-a place that would embody a different kind of democratic politics, rooted in the spiritual and the moral. With a biographer's attention to detail, historian Bruce Berglund presents lively and intimate portraits of these three figures. At the same time, he also places them in the context of politics and culture in interwar Prague and the broader history of religion and secularization in modern Europe. Gracefully written and grounded in a wide array of sources, Castle and Cathedral in Modern Prague is an original and accessible study of how people at the center of Europe, in the early decades of the twentieth century, struggled with questions of morality, faith, loyalty, and skepticism.

Prague in the early twentieth century was the city of cubists, surrealists, and the Good Soldier Svejk. This book takes a new approach to interwar Prague by identifying religion as an integral part of the city's cultural history. As Prague emerged as a modern city and the Czech nation gained independence, Catholics, Protestants, and those who imagined a non-sectarian religion debated questions of faith and morality. Contrary to the conventional view of modern Czech elites as "atheistic," Berglund shows how they were deeply concerned with the place of religion in modern life. Based upon a wide array of sources, the monograph explores the linkages between politics, theology, and architecture in the building of new symbols and a civil religion for the first Czechoslovak republic (1918-1938). Berglund views the contest of the sacred and secular in Prague within the broader context of religious change in twentieth-century Europe. His book lays a foundation for understanding both Czech culture of the interwar period as well as the nation's - and Europe's - religious history in the modern age. The author takes an approach that is both interdisciplinary and biographical by focusing on important figures in the politics and culture of interwar Prague, including Tomas Masaryk, the philosopher who became Czechoslovakia's first president; his daughter Alice, founding director of the Czechoslovak Red Cross; and Joze Plecnik, the Slovenian architect who directed the renovations of Prague Castle and designed one of the city's most renowned churches. This study of the beliefs and doubts held by these and other figures shows the transition from a (mostly) Catholic tradition to a new religious conception that was modern, humanistic, and detached from any institution - much like the religious beliefs held by many Europeans today.

Religious history more generally has experienced an exciting revival over the past few years, with new methodological and theoretical approaches invigorating the field. The time has definitely come for this new religious history to arrive in Eastern Europe. This book explores the influence of the Christian churches in Eastern Europe's social, cultural, and political history. Drawing upon archival sources, the work fills a vacuum as few scholars have systematically explored the history of Christianity in the region. The result of a three-year project, this collective work challenges readers with questions like: Is secularization a useful concept in understanding the long-term dynamics of religiosity in Eastern Europe? Is the picture of oppression and resistance an accurate way to characterize religious life under communism, or did Christians and communists find ways to co-exist on the local level prior to 1989? And what role did Christians actually play in dissident movements under communism? Perhaps most important is the question: what does the study of Eastern Europe contribute to the broader study of modern Christian history, and what can we learn from the interpretative problems that arise, uniquely, from this region?

This collective work challenges readers with questions like: Is secularization a useful concept in understanding the long-term dynamics of religiosity in Eastern Europe? Is the picture of oppression and resistance an accurate way to characterize religious life under communism, or did Christians and communists find ways to co-exist on the local level prior to 1989? And what role did Christians actually play in dissident movements under communism? Perhaps most important is the question: what does the study of Eastern Europe contribute to the broader study of modern Christian history, and what can we learn from the interpretative problems that arise, uniquely, from this region?