Christians and the Cold War

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.