Paul Betts & Stephen A. Smith 
Science, Religion and Communism in Cold War Europe 

Religion and science were fundamental aspects of Eastern European communist political culture from the very beginning, and remained in uneasy tension across the region over the decades. While both topics have long attracted a great deal of scholarly attention, they almost invariably have been studied discretely as separate stories. 
Religion, Science and Communism in Cold War Europe is the first scholarly effort to explore the delicate interface of religion, science and communism in Cold War Europe. It brings together an international team of researchers who address this relationship from a number of national viewpoints and thematic perspectives, ranging from mysticism to social science, space exploration to the socialist lifecycle, and architectural heritage to pop culture.  

Table of Content

Introduction; Stephen A. Smith.- PART I: RELIGION AND SOCIAL SCIENCE IN EASTERN EUROPE.- 1. Piety by Numbers; James Bjork.- 2. The Shepherds’ Calling, the Engineers’ Project, and the Scientists’ Problem; Patrick Hyder Patterson.- 3. Romanian Spirituality in Ceaușescu’s ‘Golden Epoch’; Zsuzsánna Magdó.- PART II: SCIENCE, RELIGION AND THE PARANORMAL.- 4. Inculcating Materialist Minds; James T. Andrews.- 5. Tsiolkovskii and the Invention of Russian Cosmism; Asif Siddiqi.- 6. Witchdoctors Drive Sports Cars, Science Takes the Bus; Monica Black.- PART III: THE SOCIALIST LIFE-CYCLE: BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION.- 7. Writing Rituals; Heléna Tóth.- 8. In Search of Rationality and Objectivity; Felix Robin Schulz.- PART IV:  SOCIALISM AND THE PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS HERITAGE.- 9. Religion and
Nauka; Catriona Kelly.- 10. The Antireligious Museum; Igor J. Polianski.- 11. Religion, Science and Cold War Anti-Communism; Paul Betts.- 

About the author

Paul Betts is Professor of Modern European History at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, UK. He has previously taught at the University of Sussex and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA, and is the author of several books and numerous articles on twentieth-century German history. His most recent book,
Within Walls: Private Life in the German Democratic Republic, was published in 2010.  





Stephen A. Smith is Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, UK. He has taught at the European University Institute in Florence and University of Essex, UK, and is the author of many books and articles on modern Russian and Chinese history. In 2014 he edited the
Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism.