A Church Militant: Anglicans and the Armed Forces from Queen Victoria to the Vietnam War [Hardcover]

This is a study of the relationship between Anglicans and the armed forces, of the military heritage and history of Anglican Communion, and the changing nature of this relationship between the mid-Victorian period and the 1970s (spanning imperial expansion, colonial conflict, both World Wars, the Cold War, wars of decolonisation, and Vietnam).This is a study of the relationship between Anglicans and the armed forces, of the military heritage and history of the Anglican Communion, and the changing nature of this relationship between the mid-Victorian period and the 1970s. This era spanned a period of imperial expansion and colonial conflict round the turn of the twentieth century, the two World Wars, the Cold War, wars of decolonisation, and Vietnam. In terms of armed conflict, it was the bloodiest period in the history of humanity and marked the advent of weaponry that had the capacity to extinguish human civilization. This book assesses the contribution of an expansive Anglican Communion to the armed forces of the English-speaking world, examines the ways in which this has been remembered, and explores its challenging legacy for the twenty-first century Church of England.List of IllustrationsList of AbbreviationsAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. 'Marching as to War': The Nineteenth-Century Inheritance2. 'Faithful, True, and Bold': The First World War3. ''Gainst all Disaster': The Second World War4. 'Aflame with Faith, and Free': The Cold War5. 'The Great Surrender Made': Remembrance and MemorialisationAfterword'Change and Decay'? The Church of England into the Twenty-First CenturyBibliographyMichael Snape,Michael Ramsey Professor of Anglican Studies; Ecumenical Lay Canon of Durham Cathedral, Durham UniversityMichael Snape was appointed Lecturer in Church History at Westhill College of Higher Education in 1994. From 1999 to 2015 he was Lecturer in Church Histo