Surveying experience across the Free Churches, this book considers the involvement of British Christians in the public debates about the justification and conduct of war and the pursuit of peace in the first half of the 20th century.
It explores church involvement with issues like Great War conscientious objectors, World War One rhetoric, the commemoration of war, and the arms trade of the mid-20th century. War, Peace and the British Free Churches, 1914-1945 shines a light on the significance of key individuals, such as Walter Mursell, Padre Ernest Lodge Watson and Henry Carter, and gives balanced coverage to the public participation of Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists and more.
The book examines the Free Church interactions with the League of Nations and its engagements with ideological discussions around Liberalism and Pacifism in the period. Indeed the era addressed by the volume is widely acknowledged as a time in which the Free Churches enjoyed a height in popular adherence across much of British society, rivalling and often eclipsing the ‘Establishment’; the book therefore provides a vital understanding of a previously neglected and yet critical dimension of Britain’s relationship with peace and conflict in the 20th century.
Editors’ Introduction 1. Oxford’s Free Churches and the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 Martin Wellings (Manchester Wesley Research Centre, UK) 2. ‘The Fellowship of trial’: Religious Rhetoric in World War One: The Sermons of Walter Mursell Brian Talbot (International Baptist Theological Seminary, Netherlands) 3. Padre Ernest Lodge Watson (1878-1951) and Army Chaplaincy during the First World War Neil Allison (Official Historian to the United Navy, Army and Air Force Board, UK; University of Highlands and Islands, UK) 4. ‘Who speaks for the Christians’? The Great War and Conscientious Objectors in the Church of Christ: A View from the Wigan Coalfield Peter Ackers (Loughborough University, UK) 5. Strict Baptist reactions to War, 1914-19 Kenneth Dix and Judith James (both Strict Baptist Historical Society, UK) 6. Methodism and Military Chaplaincy, 1900-30 Peter Howson (Independent Scholar, UK) 7. ‘Salute to the Holiest’: Lutyens, the Free Churches and the Commemoration of War Clyde D. Binfield (University of Sheffield, UK) 8. From Pride in the Living to Commemorating the Dead: Rolls of Honour in the First World War Anne C. Brook (Independent Scholar, UK) 9. ‘Divinely Ordained for the World's Life’: The Free Churches and the League of Nations Markku Ruotsila (University of Helsinki, Finland) 10. Henry Carter, British Methodism and the Search for Peace Michael Hughes (University of Lancaster, UK) 11. The Colleges of Mansfield Road, Oxford, in the Era of the Great War David Seymour (Independent Scholar, UK) 12. British Congregationalism, Liberalism and Pacifism in the Mid-Twentieth Century: The Place of Nathaniel Micklem Andrew Chandler (University of Chichester, UK) 13. The Warmongering Pacifist: A Family Story John G. Ellis (Former Moderator, United Reformed Church, UK) 14. ‘Swords and Ploughshares’: The Free Churches and the Arms Trade in Twentieth-Century Britain Pippa Catterall (University of Westminster, UK) Index
Andrew Chandler is Professor in Modern History at the University of Chichester, UK. He is the author of several books, including The Church of England in the Twentieth Century: The Church Commissioners and the Politics of Reform (2005) and George Bell, Bishop of Chichester: Church, State and Resistance in the Age of Dictatorship (2016). David Ceri Jones is Reader in Modern History at University of Aberystwyth, UK. He has written several books, including most recently, as a co-author, A History of Christianity in Wales (2022).
Reviews for War, Peace and the British Free Churches, 1914-1945
I have been very much enlightened by reading the PDF of the volume War, Peace and the British Free Churches, 1914-1945 yesterday and today. I am more than happy to supply an endorsement which I have attached. * D. Densil Morgan, Emeritus Professor in Theology, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK * During the fateful years 1914-1945, dominated by wars and rumours of wars, members of the Free Churches of England and Wales played key roles as reluctant conscripts, military chaplains, absolute pacifists and dedicated internationalists. These fifteen vivid case studies demonstrate their conscientious internal struggles and their significant influence over others * David Bebbington, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Stirling, UK * This is a rich and important study which shows the depth and variety of Free Church attitudes to war and peace in the twentieth century. It will be required reading for students of war, history and religion in the period. * William Gibson, Emeritus Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Oxford Brookes University, UK *
