Religion In The Cold War Essay

The role of religion in the Cold War has largely been neglected by traditional historiography, however, it is increasingly becoming the focus of post-revisionist Cold War scholarship that ‘hasstriven to escape the paradigm of the Cold War as simply a geopolitical phenomenon’ (Shaw, 2002,p. 4-5). The importance of religion, not only to the conflict itself, but to the domestic culture and every day lives of civilians – particularly in the United States - (as William Inboden states, ‘though Cold War historians may neglect the spiritual factor, Americans in the 1940s and 1950s did not’ [2009, p. 4]) is more and more being recognised as a key feature of the Cold War. This essay will attempt to examine the role that

In conclusion, religion played a very important role in the Cold War. The United States used religion ‘in two... ways: as a cause and as an instrument’ (Inboden, 2009, p. 2). Needing a justification for its involvement in another global conflict, the Cold War was constructed as a crusade – through discourse and propaganda - that America was morally obligated to fight, a narrative that capitalised on the religious revival of the 1950s and bound patriotism and religion together through the promotion of a ‘civil religion’. The religiosity of the Cold War was reflected both domestically and politically: evangelical radio and television shows attracted millions of viewers on hundreds of radio and television channels, Hollywood movies used religious themes (both implicitly and explicitly) to produce Cold War propaganda and the Government produced policy influenced by rising religious nationalism. The use of religion in Cold War America facilitated a cultural shift and theinstitutionalisation of non-denominational and unifying ‘civil religion’ played a significant role in garnering public support for military involvement in the Cold War by turning the armed forces into ‘the instrument of God’s will’ (Bogle, 2004, p.