Český stát a náboženství v obdobích krize 1547-1620 a 1948-1989 – Ryneš Václav (2021)

The book "The Czech State and Religion in Times of Crisis" discusses two distinct periods in Czech and Czechoslovak history – it first focuses on the development in the lands of the Czech Crown in the 16th and 17th centuries and then concentrates on the existential struggle of Czechoslovak Catholicism in the second half of the 20th century. The first book outlines the period when Czech Protestants and Czech Brethren, as significant representatives of estate-based statehood, clashed with Catholic monarchs who decided to implement the re-Catholicization of the Czech lands. The first estate uprising in 1547 did not yet resolve the dispute over Catholic or Protestant orientation in the Czech lands. The uprising from 1618 to 1620, involving all estates of the realm, essentially marked a definitive power shift and the victory of the Catholic monarch. The second book analyzes the struggle of Catholicism to maintain its existence in a people's democratic and socialist state. The author discusses the relationships between the Roman Catholic Church and the people's democratic and socialist statehood, including the role of the Czechoslovak People's Party, and presents Catholicism as an ideological force that survived forty years of persecution and later contributed to the democratization of Czech society.