Religion and the Cold War [Hardcover]

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.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

'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 basedl1