Religion and the Cold War

Although seen widely as the twentieth-century's great religious war, as a conflict between the god-fearing and the godless, the religious dimension of the Cold War has never been subjected to a scholarly critique. This unique study shows why religion is a key Cold War variable. A specially commissioned collection of new scholarship, it provides fresh insights into the complex nature of the Cold War. It has profound resonance today with the resurgence of religion as a political force in global society.

'Dianne Kirby and her 12 contributors provide new insights and interpretations of the period from 1945 to around 1960.' - Theology

'Many of these eye-opening essays are based on State Department and Foreign Office archives and exude the silver tongue of diplomacy. It is refreshing to read the assessment by Ian Jones of grassroots attitudes to the Cold War culled from church newsletters in Birmingham.' - Stuart Mews, Theology

Autorentext
FRANK J. COPPA Professor of History, St John's University, New York ANNA DICKINSON Researcher GEORGE EGERTON Associate Professor of History, University of British Columbia, Canada CHARLES R. GALLAGHER Lecturer, Department of History, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts PAUL HAINSWORTH Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Ulster, N.Ireland MATTHEW HOCKENOS Assistant Professor of History, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York IAN JONES Lloyd Researcher, Lincoln Theological Institute for the Study of Religion and Society, University of Sheffield PETER C. KENT Professor of History, University of New Brunswick HARTMUT LEHMANN Adjunct Professor at the Universities of Göttingen and Kiel JOHN POLLARD Professor of Modern European History, Anglia Polytechnic University, Cambridge TONY SHAW Senior Lecturer in History, University of Hertfordshire

Klappentext

Although seen widely as the twentieth-century's great religious war, as a conflict between the god-fearing and the godless, the religious dimension of the Cold War has never been subjected to a scholarly critique. This unique study shows why religion is a key Cold War variable. A specially commissioned collection of new scholarship, it provides fresh insights into the complex nature of the Cold War. It has profound resonance today with the resurgence of religion as a political force in global society.

Inhalt
Dedication Foreword; B.Kent Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Religion and the Cold War: An Introduction; D.Kirby Domestic and Foreign Policy Considerations and the Origins of Postwar Soviet Church-State Relations, 1941-46; A.Dickinson German Protestants Debate Politics and Theology after the Second World War; M.D.Hockenos Pope Pius XII and the Cold War: Confrontation between Catholicism and Communism; F.J.Coppa The Lonely Cold War of Pope Pius XII: P.C.Kent Harry Truman's Religious Legacy: The Holy Alliance, Containment and the Cold War; D.Kirby The Vatican, Italy and the Cold War; J.Pollard Pro Patria, Pro Deo : The United States and the Vatican in Cold War Yugoslavia, 1945-1950; C.R.Gallagher Cold War on High and Unity from Below: The French Communist Party and the Catholic Church in the Early Years of the Gaullist Fifth Republic; P.Hainsworth Entering the Age of Human Rights: Religion, Politics and Jurisprudence in Early Cold War Canada, 1945-1950; G.Egerton The Clergy, the Cold War and the Mission of the Local Church: England c.1945-60; I.Jones The Rehabilitation of Martin Luther in the GDR: or, Why Thomas Muntzer Failed to Stabilize the Moorings of Socialist Ideology; H.Lehmann Martyrs, Miracles and Martians: Religion and Cold War Cinema in the 1950s; T.Shaw