Vatican II Behind the Iron Curtain

"… fills a need for English-speaking readers, especially by identifying the far too unknown players who affected Church life in these three-and-a-half repressed countries… Recommended for college and graduate libraries with collections in Church/political/cultural history and European studies."

~John M. Grondelski, Catholic Library World

"These studies represent a major step forward in scholarship about the role of the Vatican in twentieth-century Europe."

~Peter C. Kent, University of New Brunswick, Catholic Historical Review

"This collection of essays by a group of American scholars expands the scholarship on the Second Vatican Council through examining the infuence of the churches living behing the Iron Curtain on the Second Vatican Council and its impact on them…This book is well grounded both in primary sources and varied secondary literature. Its argument against the schematic division between liberal West and Backword East with regard to the conciliar reform is sound. The concentration of different countries, with varied perspectivesm different underlying ecclesiologies, different evaluations of the role of the bishops and priests in emigration, or even opposing evaluations of the pro-regime priestly associations, make plurality of voices real."

~Ivana Noble, Charles University, Prague, Theological Studies

"This concise volume, edited by the well-known and respected scholar Piotr H. Kosicki explores the Catholic Church's relationship with the Communist world in the years of the Second Vatican Council. The book was published one year ago; its translation and publication in Poland should be only a matter of time. Let us add: a very short time... Regardless of its size - counting only about 200 pages of text - the book is written in a rich and disciplined style; after finishing it, the reader has the sense that, even if the book has not exhausted the subject, then at least it has overviewed the subjects most important aspects. The rich bibliography makes an impression; it demonstrates the wealth of knowledge that has been successfully condensed into a small book. This is to the credit of the volume's editor and of the auhtors of its individual chapters."

~Peter Admirand, The Heythrop Journal

"In this historiographic context, the collection of essays entitled Vatican II behind the Iron Curtain, edited by Piotr H. Kosicki, has now filled a gap, since it makes this Central and Eastern European research available to a larger academic audience in English, and enables these results to be integrated on an international level... Will certainly be a starting point for further research for years to come, not only in the West, but also in Central and Eastern Europe, where the various languages spoken in the region make it difficult for researchers from different nations to make use of, or even know about, others' results. Since it contains such a large amount of data that enables us to carry out various analyses, this volume is predestined to be used as a reference point...Finally, in outlining the specific characteristics of each country, the history of Catholicism in the countries behind the Iron Curtain as described in the volume provides us with a remarkable basis for comparative analyses...It is of great service to research in the field, as it provides them with a basis and incentive for further research."

~Fejérdy, András, American Historical Review

"Although this book consists of five separate articles and an introductory overview, it has a coherence and cohesion that one rarely finds in edited collections. Every chapter covers similar themes and addresses related questions, resulting in a broad yet thorough presentation of a topic that has received suprisingly little attention from historians: the role of Catholics from the Soviet Bloc during the Second Vatican Council, and the impact of that momentous event in the communist world...The editor's introduction provides a useful overview, along with an excellent summary of the existing scholarship. This is a pathbreaking project, and one that historians specializing in Catholic history and east European history will find extremely valuable. I cannot begin to even summarize the wealth of fascinating information here."

~Porter-Szucs, Brian, Slavic Review

"All in all, this book provides an excellent overview of the pluses and minuses of Central/Eastern participation at the Council. While it confines itself to only four countries, they collectively represent the strongest Catholic presence in that part of Europe which hardly receives any attention from church historians in the West."

~John T. Pawlikowski, OSM , The Polish Review

""The 1960s were the decade when liberation touched virtually everything. This path-breaking volume asks what happened when demands for greater freedom reached two cumbersome institutions: the Catholic Church and international communism.  Leading authorities explore how East Europeans worked to reform both church and state.  When did the two efforts reinforce each other? What institution was better equipped to deal with freedom's challenges? Fascinating figures make appearances from the shadows of the Cold War—Croatian students and Czech atheists but also the young bishop Karol Wojtyła—who in various ways proved instrumental in ushering in a new age: the one in which we now live. This original study makes absorbing reading and belongs on the shelf of all interested in Christianity, Communism, and human liberation." – John Connelly, University of California, Berkeley

"Typically imagined as Cold War captives with few contributions to make, Eastern European Catholics in the age of Vatican II did not merely make up a "church of silence" awaiting Pope John Paul II for their chance to speak. Instead, Piotr Kosicki and his fellow contributors demonstrate in this terrific sequence of essays, that Eastern Europe matters to the evolution of Roman Catholicism after World War II, and not simply as a late-come beneficiary. Beyond the fascinating particularities of each national story, this wonderful volume indicates the need to connect Roman Catholicism aggiornamento to larger Cold War transitions from militarized standoff to Ostpolitik to human rights."—Samuel Moyn, Harvard University

"In this important and much-needed book, Piotr Kosicki and his colleagues walk us through the ramifications of Vatican II for the communist countries and Catholic hierarchies and peoples of Eastern Europe. The distinguished authors of the volume write this little-known and complex history with nuance, attention to detail, original research, and an understanding of the dynamic and frequently unpredictable interaction of religion and politics in the region during the late Cold War." - Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University
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