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.

Berglund takes an approach that is both interdisciplinary and biographical by focusing on important figures in the politics and culture of interwar Prague, including Tomáš Masaryk, the philosopher who became Czechoslovakia's first president; his daughter Alice, founding director of the Czechoslovak Red Cross; and Jože Ple?nik, 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.