Acknowledgements
This book’s distant origins lie in a paper on Bishop George Bell written in the Spring of 2007 for a course on the ‘Politics and Ethics of the Use of Force’ at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Professor J. Bryan Hehir SJ’s incisive criticisms and helpful comments encouraged me to pursue the subject further.
That paper expanded into my 2014 doctoral thesis at Boston University School of Theology on the ethical debate on the British bombing of German cities during the Second World War. Special thanks are due to Professor John Hart who guided me through the preparation and defence of the dissertation. I am also grateful to Professor Walter Fluker, Dr Norman Faramelli, and the late Professor Daniel Westberg for their support and encouragement.
The thesis led in turn to researching and writing a book on the Church of England’s participation in the ethical debates surrounding the Second World War. I am grateful to Dr Christopher Wells and Professor Ephraim Radner for their invaluable assistance in reading my thesis and directing me to Brill’s Anglican-Episcopal Theology and History series as a possible publication venue.
I owe an incalculable debt of gratitude to Dr Paul Avis for hundreds of hours spent reading and discussing successive drafts as he has helped me prepare this book for publication. It has been a blessing to receive Paul and Susan’s warm hospitality on my visits to their home in the East Devon countryside.
The staff at Lambeth Palace Library have been consistently welcoming, friendly, helpful, and efficient. I am grateful to the staff at the James Parkes Library at the University of Southampton for their assistance during my visit in October 2023. Special thanks are due to Natalie Toy at the York Minster Archives for her obliging help during my visit there in the same month.
A word of thanks to Professor Daphne Hampson for her kind permission to use her 1973 Oxford D.Phil. thesis on the British Response to the German Church Struggle.
Last but certainly not least, I express my thanks to the members of my family, especially my wife Elizabeth, for their consistent support, encouragement, patience, and forbearance, through the years of my work on this project.