Thomas W O'Brien

This thought-provoking work examines American Catholic theologian John Courtney Murray, whose beliefs featured an enthusiastic endorsement of America and thorough condemnation of communism, in the context of the Cold War debates of the 1950s. This was a time when Catholics were still perceived with suspicion by the mainstream. The book contends that the rhetoric of the Cold War was more than merely an ingredient of John Courtney Murray's public theology—it was part of the very foundation of his thinking. John Courtney Murray in a Cold War Context argues that Murray, and other American Catholics, recognized, through the Cold War milieu, an opportunity to reconcile their religious tradition with their own political affiliation.