"The War and the Gospel: Sermons and Addresses During the Present War" by Henry Wace was published in 1917 and people were in the thick of the first World War. Though the world had started to become acclimated to the conflict, they continuously hoped the end of the war would fast approach. This book is a collection of speeches that were given during this time. These speeches were meant to uplift, give hope, and strengthen the resolve of citizens all over.
This book is the first substantial study of the presence and relationship with the concepts of apocalypse, eschatology, and millennium in modern British art from 1914 to 1945, addressing how and why practitioners in both religious and secular spheres turned to the subjects. The volume examines British art and visual culture’s relationship with the then-contemporary anxieties and hopes regarding the orientation of society and culture, arguing that there is an acute relationship to the particular forms of cultural discourse of eschatology, apocalypse, and millennium. Chapters identify the continued relevance of religion and religious themes in British art during the period, and demonstrate that eschatology, apocalypse, and millennium were thriving and surprisingly mainstream concepts in the period that remained vital in early to mid-twentieth-century society and culture. This book is a research monograph aimed at an audience of scholars and graduate students already familiar with the core focus of modern British art and cultural histories, especially those working on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, or the concepts of apocalypse, eschatology, and millennium in Theology, Sociology, or other disciplinary settings. It will also be of interest to scholars and students working on war and visual culture, or histories of imperialism. It will benefit scholars of early twentieth-century British art, demonstrating the intersection of art and religion in the modern era, and critically qualifies the standard secular canon and narrative of modern British art, and the general neglect of religion in existing art-historical literature.
God, Germany, and Britain in the Great War compares the patriotic preaching of two major combatants in World War II--Germany and Great Britain. The core material for the study is the war sermons of the British and German clergy of 1914-1918, but the author also employs numerous speeches, books, addresses, pamphlets, and journal articles to support his arguments. As Hoover demonstrates, the Protestant churchmen played a significant role in the First World War as religion became a key ingredient in the war fever experienced on both sides. Religious historians as well as historians of World War I will find Hoover's study both enlightening and provocative reading. Hoover explores the attacks made by each nation's clergy on the enemy and analyzes the public's responses to these attacks. Based on his close readings of the sermons, Hoover shows that ministers from each nation repeatedly stressed the national flaws of the opponent, predicting that these flaws would have to be eradicated before peace could be restored. Both found religious justification for their participation in the war, Hoover notes, in the belief that the other nation had sinned in special ways. Each defended the just war theory, carrying the justification of the ancient thesis to new and, argues Hoover, possibly invalid heights. In his final chapter, Hoover offers a measured critique of Christian nationalism summarizing its dangers and identifying implications for the future.
