Abstrakt
The reviewer sets the monograph of the Slovak historian Miloslav Szabó, entitled Klérofašisti: Slovenskí kňazi a pokušenie radikálnej politiky [Clerical fascists: Slovak clergy and the temptation of radical policy (1935-1945)] (Bratislava: Slov- art, 2019), in the context of contemporary transnational research works and debates on the relation between Catholicism and fascism in the 20th century. The author drew inspiration from the methodological tools of research into hybrid forms of fascism and from the concept of clerical fascism, which he applied to the environment of the Slovak Christians, mainly Catholic clerics, in the late period of the First Czechoslovak Republic and during the Slovak State (1939-1945).
He traces their ideological and political radicalization, describes the dynamics of the development of their opinions, placing them in the context of the changes in the ideological and political climate. Using specific examples, he also outlines a typology of a clerical-fascist activist, an extremist and a martyr.
The reviewer sees the first type, characterized by a more or less tactical shift towards fascism and the Ludak regime and probably predominant among the Slovak clergy, as the most productive area for research. According to the reviewer, the author takes the research on the issue further thanks to his approach and knowledge.
Finally, the reviewer raises the question of the applicability of the concept of clerical-fascism to the Czech Catholic environment of the first half of the 20th century