American Churches and the First World War

The centenary of America's declaration of war in 1917 is a fitting time to examine afresh the reaction of the American churches to the conflict. What was the impact of the war on the churches as well as the churches' hoped-for influence on the nation's war effort? Commenting on themes such as nationalism, nativism, nation-building, dissent, just war, and pacifism, this book provides a window into those perilous times from the viewpoint of Mainline and Evangelical Protestants, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Mennonites, Quakers, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses. Also included are chapters on developments among American military chaplains in the First World War and the reaction of the American churches to the Armenian Genocide.


""Gordon Heath's intelligently edited volume joins important recent books by Philip Jenkins and Jonathan Ebel in showing how thoroughly the First World War represented a religious event as well as a military conflict. This book excels in its treatment of a wide array of American denominations, no two of which reacted to the war in exactly the same way, but also in the care with which authors of the individual chapters have done their work. It makes an unusually fine contribution, for both religious history and social-political history, to 2017 and the centennial commemoration of the United States' entrance into the war.""
--Mark A. Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History Emeritus, University of Notre Dame

""American Churches and the First World War is an excellent extension of the growing body of work on the century-old war. Each chapter offers something new to the study of religion and the Great War. Of special interest are the studies of the Evangelicals, Lutherans, Mennonites, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses. The chapter on Turkey and the Armenians is a welcome addition to the discussion.""
--John F. Piper Jr., Professor of History, Emeritus, Lycoming College

""The eleven chapters of American Churches and the First World War provide a much-needed contribution to the study of religion and war in American history. Most significant for students of the Great War in America is the authors' collective attempt to move beyond generalizations into the sharp-edged specifics of religious identity that shaped wartime attitudes. In so doing, the authors reckon with the irreducible diversity of America's Christianities in the early twentieth century.""
--Jonathan H. Ebel, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Gordon L. Heath (PhD, St. Michael's College) is Associate Professor of Christian History and Centenary Chair of World Christianity at McMaster Divinity College, and Director of the Canadian Baptist Archives. His publications include A War with a Silver Lining: Canadian Protestant Churches and the South African War, 1899-1902 (2009) and a companion to this present work: Canadian Churches and the First World War (Pickwick, 2014).