Jaká víra? Současná česká religiozita/spiritualita v pohledu kvalitativní sociologie náboženství

This volume offers a summary of the most important knowledge in the field of contemporary
qualitative sociology of religion in the Czech Republic, and it describes the state of religiosity/spirituality
in the country after 1989 up to the present in a European context. The majority of Czech sociologists
of religion, based at various academic institutions, contributed to the preparation of the volume.
In six independent studies the authors draw attention to the most important developmental
trends in Czech religiosity, including the institutional boundaries in the form of state legislative and
normative policies on the one hand, and unorganised, privatised belief structures on the other,
and they offer deeper insight into the religious ideas of people with faith through case studies
and anthropological research.
In the introductory study, Z. R. Nešpor characterises the current state of the sociology of religion
in the Czech Republic. In the second and – in terms of focus – largest study in the volume the same
author outlines the main developmental trends in Czech religiosity, especially in connection with
the transformations of the political, economic, media, and cultural spheres in the 1990s and at
the start of the new millennium. Contemporary (traditional) church religiosity is the focus of the
studies by O. Nešporová (the conceptualisation of death and afterlife existence) and M. Staněk
(the phenomenon of Catholic so-called „private“ revelations). D. Antalík focuses on the „search
for the sacred“, as manifested in allegedly pre-Christian Celtic traditions, and on social groups with
similar orientations. D. Lužný provides an analysis of the contemporary media discourse on new religious
movements and the position towards them adopted by the state, using the examples of the
Church of Scientology and the Unification Church (Moonists).