Communist Perspectives on Atheism in the Twentieth Century

This book offers an analysis of the wide range of attitudes that communist movements and regimes adopted towards atheism during the twentieth century.

List of contents

Foreword: The Spectre of Atheism (Pierre-Antoine Fabre); Introduction: Investigating Causes of Atheism and Atheisation in Communist Contexts (Eva Guigo-Patzelt); SECTION 1: THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNIST ATHEISM IN INTERWAR AND POST-WORLD WAR II EUROPE; Chapter 1: "Sacred Parasites" or "People's Allies": The Greek Socialist Movement between Christian-Socialism and Bolshevik Anti-Clericalism (1880-1940) (Kostas Paloukis); Chapter 2: Technocratic Secularism and Religion in Communist Albania (Artan R. Hoxha); Chapter 3: "Is Marxism Necessarily Atheistic?" Gustav Wetter, the Holy See and the Condemnation of Communism (Marie Lucas and Mikhail Velizhev); SECTION 2: EASTERN EUROPEAN AMBIVALENCES IN THE 1970S AND 1980S; Chapter 4: Formation and Dissolution of the Museum for the Development of Social Consciousness in Bratislava (Jan Tesä); Chapter 5: New Thinking in the Nuclear Age? Marxist-Leninist Conceptions of War and Peace in the GDR in the 1980s and the Dialogue with Churches and Christians (Stephen G. Brown); Chapter 6: Shifting Paradigms: Religiosity and Atheization in Socialist Slovenia (Gašper Mithans and Mateja Režek); SECTION 3: REALIGNMENTS OF COMMUNISM AND ATHEISM IN VARYING RELIGIOUS EXTRA-EUROPEAN CONTEXTS; Chapter 7: "Muslim Communists": Afghan Atheism in the 20th Century (Sayed Hassan Akhlaq); Chapter 8: Navigating "Superstition", Science, and (Non-)Belief: Religious Engineering and Dynamics of Secularism in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 1955-1975 (Thao Nghiem).

About the author

Eva Guigo-Patzelt is an associate member of CéSor - Centre d'études en sciences sociales du religieux (EHESS/CNRS) in France and a project lead within the Explaining Atheism Programme led by Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Product details

• Authors: Eva Guigo-Patzelt
• Assisted by: Eva Guigo-Patzelt (Editor)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.05.2025
• EAN: 9781032938530
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3293853-0
• No. of pages: 162
• Series: Routledge Studies in Religion
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Geography; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; Eastern Europe, European History, RELIGION / Atheism, Social & political philosophy, History of Religion, Religion & politics, social and political philosophy, Regional Studies, Far-left political ideologies and movements, Regional / International studies, Religion and Politics, Marxism & Communism