A Religious War?: The Cold War and Religion

Until recently, scholars of the Cold War had devoted little attention to the role of religion in the East-West standoff—its impact on events, institutions, and strategies. In recent years, however, this lacuna has begun to be filled by a burgeoning literature on different aspects of religion and the Cold War. The outpouring of scholarship has given a much more nuanced picture of how religion influenced U.S. foreign policy after 1945 both domestically and internationally. This article evaluates four recent books about the topic, distilling from them some of the key questions to be answered about the religious dimension of the Cold War.