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  • Print publication year: 2006
  • Online publication date: March 2008

16 - The Cold War, the hegemony of the United States and the golden age of Christian democracy

from PART II - NARRATIVES OF CHANGE
Summary
Christianity and democracy were placed at the core of anti-communism. For America, God's country, the Cold War became a Christian enterprise, a crusade against the forces of evil. Even the USSR recognised the benefits to be gained from closer church-state relations. Members of the underground churches avoided participation in Soviet society and the patriarchal Orthodox church. Mutual interest lay at the heart of the US-Vatican alliance against the USSR. Both shared a deep fear of the potential of Soviet communism to undermine their global positions. The product of a process of history reaching back through the centuries, Christian democracy came into its own in the post-war period. With clear-cut examples of religious persecution in Spain under a remaining Axis leader, to indict Tito and not Franco would be a gift to Soviet propaganda. Religion and Americanism were brought together in a consensus that personal religious faith reflected proper patriotic commitment.
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The Cambridge History of Christianity
  • Volume 9: World Christianities c.1914–c.2000
  • Edited by Hugh McLeod
  • Online ISBN: 9781139054850
  • Book DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521815000
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