Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
3.2
1.7
Journals
Social Sciences
Special Issues
Christians and the Cold War
share announcement

Christians and the Cold War

A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2018) | Viewed by 28290

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Jay P. Corrin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Division of the Social Sciences, College of General Studies, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Interests: religion and politics, especially the influence of Catholicism on political thought and actions

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The objective of this special edition is to explore how Christianity shaped American foreign policy and conditioned the ways individual intellectuals responded to the challenges of Communism after the end of World War II. This proved to be a mixed blessing as an ideological justification for meeting Soviet expansionism, since the religious principles upon which the Truman and Eisenhower administrations legitimized their policies (thereby satisfying public opinion) often conflicted with the promises of decolonization in the Third World and the expansion of global democracy.

The issue of religion and Communism gives rise to a number of questions. How did Christian leaders and intellectuals along with American politicians turn religion into one of the central bulwarks against the atheistic Soviet Union? Did it play a central role in overcoming American isolationism and therefore justify the ideological call to arms against Communism? (See for example the religious overtones of NSC-68, which explained the need to expand America’s nuclear arsenal). What were the dissenting Christian voices to such policies? In what ways was the construction of what some have seen to be a “Spiritual-Military-Industrial Complex” (see the work of Jonathan P. Herzog and Dianne Kirby) the product of this crusade against Communism? How was religion in this context used to justify the advancement of free market capitalism? A natural product of these challenges was the growth of America’s nuclear deterrence. In what ways did this complicate traditional Christian principles concerning just war theory? Whereas Christianity could be used to bolster U.S. efforts to contain the influence of Soviet Communism, religious teachings at the same time could be used to justify the liberation of the disadvantaged in nations dominated by right-wing governments supported by American corporate power. (See the influence of Liberation Theology concerning such matters). Throughout the Cold War years Christian intellectuals were forced to square their religious principles with the practice of American foreign policy. Were they successful in doing so? All this came to a head with the American experience in Vietnam and the role of Christians leading the anti-war movement.

In the final analysis, did the moralistic transformation of American foreign policy into a religious crusade represent an aberration of established Western notions of diplomacy established since the end of the religious wars of the sixteenth century, or was it rather rooted in the culture of American “exceptionalism” that birthed a mission to save the world from evil. What were the consequences of this effort for American domestic politics as well as the costs of waging the Cold War? How did this emphasis on religion condition the framework for which the Cold War would be conducted?

After 1945, the Grand Alliance that fought fascism broke down, producing considerable tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Stalin’s failure to follow through on the promises of the Yalta Conference and subsequent communist expansion in Eastern Europe led to a prolonged and dangerous Cold War. This did not result in an actual shoot-out between the two opposing adversaries (however, this was undertaken by proxies), but it did produce an ideological and geo-political struggle undergirded by nuclear weapons that at times came perilously close to destroying civilization itself.

This Special Issue of Social Sciences intends to examine the ways in which Christian intellectuals (Protestant and Catholic) responded to the challenges of the Cold War. What role did the U.S. government play in using religion to formulate its efforts to contain Soviet communism? How did theological principles shape America’s understanding and responses to the myriad of problems that grew out of this conflict? These challenges included, among others, the threat of internal communist subversion in the U.S. and Western Europe, decolonization in Asia, Africa and Latin America, the promotion of free market capitalism, the creation of military alliances, nuclear deterrence, Christian ideas justifying warfare, and containing the expansion of the Soviet system.

Prof. Jay Corrin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.


References:

Jonathon Lamb. “After the Wall: Reflections on 20 Years of mission in Europe.” Christianity Today, 9 November 2009.

James Chappel. “Nihilism and the Cold War: The Catholic reception of nihilism between Nietzsche and Adenauer.” Rethinking History, 19 March 2015.

David Allen. “The Peace Corps in U.S. Foreign Relations and Church-State Politics.” Historical Journal, March 2015.

Miguel Angel Quintana-Paz. “Enrique Dussel and Liberation Theology: Violence or Dialogue?” Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 26 (1/2, 2014).

Wim Coudenys, “‘Fictional, but Truthful.’ Nicholas Belina-Podgaetsky, A Soviet Journalist at the Service of Catholic Anti-Communism in Belgium.” Revue d’histoire ecclesastique, 111 (Jan.-June 2016).

Jay P. Corrin. “The English Catholic New Left and Liberation Theology.” Journal of Church and State, Volume 59, Number 1, Winter 2017.

.Kenneth J. Heineman. “Catholics, Communists, and Conservatives: The Making of Cold War Democrats on the Pittsburgh Front.” U.S. Catholic Historian, 34 (Fall, 2016).

David Scott. “The Pope We Never Knew: the Unknown Story of How John Paul II Ushered Campus Crusade into Catholic Poland.” Christianity Today, 19 April 2009.

Dianne Kirby. “The Cold War and American Religion.” Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Religion, May 2017.

Keywords

  • democracy
  • liberation theology
  • social justice
  • socialism
  • containment
  • spy networks
  • capitalism
  • communism
  • economic aid
  • nation building
  • freedom fighters
  • propaganda
  • peaceful coexistence
  • pacifism
  • Christian theology and war
  • war and faith

Published Papers (5 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

18 pages, 238 KiB  
Article
From Just War to Nuclear Pacifism: The Evolution of U.S. Christian Thinking about War in the Nuclear Age, 1946–1989
by Stephen R. Rock
Soc. Sci. 2018, 7(6), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7060082 - 24 May 2018
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4351
Abstract
During the Cold War, two basic schools of thought emerged among U.S. Christian leaders and ethicists concerning the implications of the nuclear revolution for the use of force by the United States. The just war thinkers held that nuclear war could in fact [...] Read more.
During the Cold War, two basic schools of thought emerged among U.S. Christian leaders and ethicists concerning the implications of the nuclear revolution for the use of force by the United States. The just war thinkers held that nuclear war could in fact be conducted within the bounds of traditional just war principles, particularly those of discrimination and proportionality. Since nuclear weapons could be used in war, it followed that they could and should be developed and produced for that purpose and for the purpose of deterrence. The nuclear pacifists held that nuclear war could not be conducted within the confines of traditional just war principles. Since by its nature nuclear war could not be moral, there was no reason for the development and production of nuclear weapons, except for the purpose of deterrence. And since nuclear deterrence required one to make threats of nuclear destruction that it would not be moral to carry out, and, moreover, carried unacceptable risks of miscalculation and inadvertent or accidental use of nuclear weapons, deterrence itself could not be justified, except perhaps as a temporary way station on the path to nuclear disarmament. Although the just war thinkers initially held sway, over time they became less dominant. By the middle of the 1980s, the U.S. Catholic Church and most of the largest Mainline Protestant denominations had formally adopted a nuclear pacifist position. This essay chronicles the victory of nuclear pacifism in these churches, explains it as a reaction to the nuclear weapons and doctrine advocated by the just war thinkers, and implemented by the U.S. government and military, as well as other events and trends in American society, and inquires as to whether or not the just war thinkers and nuclear pacifists influenced the course of U.S. policy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Christians and the Cold War)
18 pages, 329 KiB  
Article
Sergei and the “Divinely Appointed” Stalin: Theology and Ecclesiology in Church-State Relations in the Soviet Union in the Lead-up to the Cold War
by Roland Boer
Soc. Sci. 2018, 7(4), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7040067 - 16 Apr 2018
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 6274
Abstract
In contrast to the tendency to focus on political and social reasons for the rapprochement between the Soviet government and the Russian Orthodox Church, between Stalin and the later patriarch Sergei, this article deals with theological and ecclesiological sensibilities. One would expect such [...] Read more.
In contrast to the tendency to focus on political and social reasons for the rapprochement between the Soviet government and the Russian Orthodox Church, between Stalin and the later patriarch Sergei, this article deals with theological and ecclesiological sensibilities. One would expect such reasons from the side of the church but I also argue that they were important for Stalin’s considerations and acts. His deep awareness and intimate knowledge of the church, and active involvement and concrete proposals in the long interaction between church and state, were as important as those of Sergei. The article begins with a reconsideration of Stalin’s period of theological study, which influenced him deeply and provided with him unique insights into the nature of the church. After this period, an intriguing path unfolds, through key categories of Stalin’s thought thought and his effort—which was strongly opposed – to include the article on religious freedom in the 1936 constitution, let alone the definition of socialism (in contrast to communism) in terms of two biblical verses in the very same constitution. At the same time, the statements and actions of Sergei, already from 1927, were also part of the narrative, so the analysis moves between church and state until the meeting in 1943. All of this is crucial material for understanding developments in the period officially known as the Cold War. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Christians and the Cold War)
21 pages, 301 KiB  
Article
The English Catholic New Left: Battling the Religious Establishment and the Politics of the Cold War
by Jay P. Corrin
Soc. Sci. 2018, 7(4), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7040060 - 08 Apr 2018
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5202
Abstract
In the 1960s there appeared in England a group of young university educated Catholics who sought to merge radical Catholic social teachings with the ideas of Karl Marx and the latest insights of European and American sociologists and literary theorists. They were known [...] Read more.
In the 1960s there appeared in England a group of young university educated Catholics who sought to merge radical Catholic social teachings with the ideas of Karl Marx and the latest insights of European and American sociologists and literary theorists. They were known as the English Catholic New Left (ECNL). Under the inspiration of their Dominican mentors, they launched a magazine called Slant that served as the vehicle for publishing their ideas about how Catholic theology along with the Social Gospels fused with neo-Marxism could bring a humanistic socialist revolution to Britain. The Catholic Leftists worked in alliance with the activists of the secular New Left Review to achieve this objective. A major influence on the ECNL was the Marxist Dominican friar Laurence Bright and Herbert McCabe, O. P. Slant took off with great success when Sheed and Ward agreed to publish the journal. Slant featured perceptive, indeed at times brilliant, cutting-edge articles by the Catholic Left’s young Turks, including Terry Eagleton, Martin Redfern, Bernard Sharratt, and Angela and Adrian Cunningham, among others. A major target of the Slant project was the Western Alliance’s Cold War strategy of nuclear deterrence, which they saw to be contrary to Christian just war theory and ultimately destructive of humankind. Another matter of concern for the Slant group was capitalist imperialism that ravaged the underdeveloped world and was a major destabilizing factor for achieving world peace and social equality. Despite their failure to achieve a social revolution “baptized by Christianity,” the English Catholic New Left broke new ground in terms of showing how a traditional religion with a highly conservative and sometimes reactionary history had the capacity to offer new paths forward and remain an inspiration to progressive thinking Christians trying to navigate the shoals of a post-modern world. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Christians and the Cold War)
17 pages, 294 KiB  
Article
The Roots of the Religious Cold War: Pre-Cold War Factors
by Dianne Kirby
Soc. Sci. 2018, 7(4), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7040056 - 03 Apr 2018
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 7387
Abstract
The article is an examination of the roots of the amalgam of complex forces that informed the ‘religious cold war’. It looks at the near and the more distant past. Naturally this includes consideration of the interwar years and those of the Second [...] Read more.
The article is an examination of the roots of the amalgam of complex forces that informed the ‘religious cold war’. It looks at the near and the more distant past. Naturally this includes consideration of the interwar years and those of the Second World War. It also means addressing divisions in Christianity that can be traced back to the end of the third century, to the official split of 1054 between Catholic and Orthodox, the impact of the Crusades and the entrenched hostility that followed the fifty-seven years imposition on Constantinople of a Latin Patriarch. It surveys the rise of significant forces that were to contribute to, as well as consolidate and strengthen, the religious cold war: civil religion, Christian fundamentalism and the Religious Right. The article examines both western and eastern mobilization of national religious resources for political purposes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Christians and the Cold War)
12 pages, 253 KiB  
Article
The Vietnam War, the Church, the Christian Democratic Party and the Italian Left Catholics
by Daniela Saresella
Soc. Sci. 2018, 7(4), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7040055 - 03 Apr 2018
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4503
Abstract
Over the years of the Cold War, the conflict in Vietnam assumed the significance of a clash between two civilizations, the West and communism. Italian Catholics thus found themselves not only invoking the end of the conflict, but also expressing their evaluations on [...] Read more.
Over the years of the Cold War, the conflict in Vietnam assumed the significance of a clash between two civilizations, the West and communism. Italian Catholics thus found themselves not only invoking the end of the conflict, but also expressing their evaluations on the choices made in international politics by the two superpowers. The positions assumed by the ecclesiastic Institution, the Christian Democrats and the Catholic world in Italy towards the war in Indochina were not identical: in fact, if—with a few exceptions—the ecclesiastic hierarchy was distinguished by its extreme caution, in the Catholic party different positions became manifest. It was mainly in Catholic associations, and in general amongst believers closer to the experience of the Vatican Council, that a radical sense of aversion to U.S. foreign policy developed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Christians and the Cold War)
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-5
Back to TopTop