The Chaplain's Conflict


Book Description

As chaplain for the US Army's 102nd Evacuation Hospital in the European Theater, Renwick C. Kennedy--"Ren" to those who knew him--witnessed great courage, extreme talent, and many lives snatched from the precipice of death, all under the most trying conditions. He also observed drug and alcohol abuse, prejudice, narrow-mindedness, and chronic depression. What he saw, he chronicled in his journal, and what he wrote, he processed with an intellectual and ethical rigor born of his remarkably sophisticated worldview and his deeply held Christian faith. With Kennedy's war diaries and postwar articles published in Christian Century and Time magazines in front of him, historian Tennant McWilliams spent a year retracing every step, every turn, every location of the 102nd in wartime France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany, compiling rich detail on this episode in Kennedy's life. McWilliams's interviews with citizens of France and Luxembourg who recall the 102nd further revealed local people's reactions to the army hospital that illuminated both Kennedy's severe criticism and his enduring praise for evac life. The result is a candid view of what went on in the World War II evac hospitals. With a nuanced and gritty style, The Chaplain's Conflict shatters the self-interested and sometimes sentimental images of evacs held by some among the medical community. This complex and compelling observation of doctors practicing war-zone medicine in World War II will hold great appeal for readers of military and medical history, as well as those interested in the socio-cultural, ethical, and religious implications of war and military service.




Military Chaplains as Agents of Peace


Book Description

Globally, where faith and political processes share the public space with indigenous populations, religious leaders of tolerant voice, who desire to transcend the conflict that often divides their peoples, are coming forward. Affirming and enabling these leaders is increasingly becoming the focus of the reconciliation efforts of peace builders, both internally and externally to existing conflict. By way of theoretical analysis and documented case studies from a number of countries, Military Chaplains as Agents of Peace considers Religious Leader Engagement (RLE) as an emerging domain that advances the cause of reconciliation via the religious peace building of chaplains: A construct that may be generalized to expeditionary, humanitarian, and domestic operational contexts. An overview of the benefits and limitations of RLE is offered and accompanied by a candid discussion of a number of the more perplexing questions related to such operational ministry: Influence Activities, Information Gathering for Intelligence Purposes, and the Protected (Non-Combatant) Status of Chaplains.




Military Chaplaincy in Contention


Book Description

Through the unique chaplain's eye view of the significance of their experience for understanding the ethics of war, this book offers clearer understanding of chaplaincy in the context of the changing nature of international conflict (shaped around insurgency and non-state forces) and explores the response of faith communities to the role of the armed services. It makes the case for relocating understandings of just war within a theological framework and for a clear understanding of the relationship between the mission of chaplaincy and that of the military.




Military Chaplains and Religious Diversity


Book Description

Based on extensive in-depth interviews with more than thirty active duty chaplains regarding their successes, failures and conflicts, the book is about the way military chaplains handle religious diversity among the enlisted they serve and within their own corps.




Battlefield Chaplains


Book Description

"Catholic chaplains shared fully in the lot of the common soldier in World War II - in Pacific island jungles, Europe's battered cities, North African deserts, and the oceans in between. And like the common soldier, they endured the same combat perils, exposure to the elements, internal conflicts, boredom, and intense longings for peace and home. They saved lives, provided comfort and hope, and renewed lost faith in a dark time. In this compelling account Father Donald Crosby provides an unforgettable portrait of faith under fire and grace at ground level, reminding us again that "there are no atheists in foxholes.""--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved




Military Chaplains as Agents of Peace


Book Description

Globally, where faith and political processes share the public space with indigenous populations, religious leaders of tolerant voice, who desire to transcend the conflict that often divides their peoples, are coming forward. Affirming and enabling these leaders is increasingly becoming the focus of the reconciliation efforts of peace builders, both internally and externally to existing conflict. By way of theoretical analysis and documented case studies from a number of countries, Military Chaplains as Agents of Peace considers Religious Leader Engagement (RLE) as an emerging domain that advances the cause of reconciliation via the religious peace building of chaplains: A construct that may be generalized to expeditionary, humanitarian, and domestic operational contexts. An overview of the benefits and limitations of RLE is offered and accompanied by a candid discussion of a number of the more perplexing questions related to such operational ministry: Influence Activities, Information Gathering for Intelligence Purposes, and the Protected (Non-Combatant) Status of Chaplains.




Change and Conflict in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps Since 1945


Book Description

Army chaplains have long played an integral part in America’s armed forces. In addition to conducting chapel activities on military installations and providing moral and spiritual support on the battlefield, they conduct memorial services for fallen soldiers, minister to survivors, offer counsel on everything from troubled marriages to military bureaucracy, and serve as families’ points of contact for wounded or deceased soldiers—all while risking the dangers of combat alongside their troops. In this thoughtful study, Anne C. Loveland examines the role of the army chaplain since World War II, revealing how the corps has evolved in the wake of cultural and religious upheaval in American society and momentous changes in U.S. strategic relations, warfare, and weaponry. From 1945 to the present, Loveland shows, army chaplains faced several crises that reshaped their roles over time. She chronicles the chaplains’ initiation of the Character Guidance program as a remedy for the soaring rate of venereal disease among soldiers in occupied Europe and Japan after World War II, as well as chaplains’ response to the challenge of increasing secularism and religious pluralism during the “culture wars” of the Vietnam Era.“Religious accommodation,” evangelism and proselytizing, public prayer, and “spiritual fitness”provoked heated controversy among chaplains as well as civilians in the ensuing decades. Then, early in the twenty-first century, chaplains themselves experienced two crisis situations: one the result of the Vietnam-era antichaplain critique, the other a consequence of increasing religious pluralism, secularization, and sectarianism within the Chaplain Corps, as well as in the army and the civilian religious community. By focusing on army chaplains’ evolving, sometimes conflict-ridden relations with military leaders and soldiers on the one hand and the civilian religious community on the other, Loveland reveals how religious trends over the past six decades have impacted the corps and, in turn, helped shape American military culture.







Chaplains at War


Book Description

Patriotism and religious belief were defining characteristics of both public and private life during the 20th century. British army chaplains were shaped by these powerful sentiments and in turn shaped and interpreted them to understand their own roles and to provide a message and ministry to soldiers and officers. Focusing on World War II,. 'Chaplains at War' reveals how the army, the government and the churches responded to the challenges of war, leading to innovation that was unknown in peace time such as the appointing women as Chaplains' Assistants. Alan Robinson uses interviews with former chaplains, officers and soldiers and extensive archive research in military, government and church archives to draw together personal experience and official policy. His book will be essential reading for anyone interested in British military history, church history and religious studies.




Serving God and Country


Book Description

In World War II, over 12,000 Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, and Jewish rabbis left the safety of home to join the Chaplain Corps, following the armed forces into battle across Europe, Asia, North Africa, and the high seas. They were officers who displayed uncommon courage and sacrifice. They were men of faith under fire. And they would charge straight into Hell to save the soul of a single soldier… Representing America’s three major religious traditions, thousands of volunteers from across the country enlisted as non-combatant commissioned officers to provide spiritual strength and guidance for those fighting men who never knew if they were going to survive to see another day. Armed only with Bibles, Torahs, and the tools of their holy trade, these men of God went wherever the troops went—from the bloody beaches of the Normandy Invasion to the hellish jungles of Guadalcanal and Okinawa in the Pacific. They prayed over men about to march into combat on land, sailors facing Kamikaze attacks at sea, and bomber crews who could neither retreat nor surrender in the air. And, most important and difficult of all, they guided fallen fighting men of every faith as they breathed their last, and gave up their lives in the fight against tyranny. These are the personal stories of some of the bravest and most selfless men who served with the armed forces. Many lost their lives or suffered debilitating wounds while serving as pastors to the troops. All of them battled the pain of separation from their own loved ones as they gave some of the best years of their lives to keep the military personnel spiritually awake, morally fit—and prepared to make the journey from this world to the next without fear or despair, and with the trust of the Almighty in their hearts.