Christianity is the historically predominant religious tradition in Cuba, although Cubans have generally seen lower affiliation and activity in religious practices compared with the rest of Latin America. In contemporary Cuba, religion exists in a dialectical, multidimensional relationship with the political, social and lived realities of the Cuban revolution. Since 1959 and the rise of Fidel Castro to power, the revolution has formed the immediate political, social and cultural context within which both institutional religious organisations and religious Cubans have navigated their identities and lives. Alongside Christianity, small Islamic, Jewish and Chinese religious communities subsist on the island.

Following the establishment of the socialist state and communism as the ideological foundation of the revolution in the early 1960s, Christianity came into conflict with the revolutionary regime. Religious communities experienced varying levels of confrontation and tension with the state. Experiences of discrimination based on religious beliefs and public participation in religious practices prevailed, particularly in the early stages of the revolution. The state limited the public life of religious communities, controlled religious expression and excluded religious institutions from national media and education. Known practitioners of Christian faith experienced discrimination in their educational and professional trajectories.

As a result of state-sanctioned atheism and social polarisation, large numbers of contemporary Cubans have experienced alienation from religious traditions, either by choice or by circumstance. Until 1991, Cuba was a constitutionally atheist state with an officially sanctioned materialistic worldview in which religion played a role of marginalised otherness, excluded from the all-encompassing framework of the revolution, ideal citizenry and public participation. Following the economic hardship on the island after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the consequent ideological and existential crisis, the emerging societal and charitable dimensions of institutional Christianity paved the way for a gradual increase in the public visibility and influence of religion in Cuban society.

In contemporary Cuba, the revolution is understood as an ongoing, dynamic process that continues to provide the frameworks for sociopolitical, economic and cultural life. A special department in the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party called the Oficina de Atención a Asuntos Religiosos (Office of Religious Affairs) manages and oversees the organisational activities of religious institutions in society.