Ecumenism and the Anglophone Armies of World War I: the British, Canadian, and American Experience

Michael Snape

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Chapter 8 Ecumenism and the Anglophone Armies of World War I: the British, Canadian, and American Experience

In: Nationalism and Internationalism in the Young Ecumenical Movement, 1895-1920s

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Michael Snape

Michael Snape
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 195–224

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004707597_009

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Abstract

The development of ecumenism in the English-speaking world in the early decades of the twentieth century owes much to the mass military mobilization of religiously pluralistic societies in World War I. In this military context, and despite the persistence of stark denominational and confessional rivalries in civilian society, citizen soldiers—both clergy and lay—from many traditions were obliged to collaborate with each other, in religious as well as secular terms. The results could be striking, forging, for example, strong personal friendships and alliances between clergy from vastly different theological and denominational backgrounds. While the creation of a new form of chaplaincy organization in the American Expeditionary Force in France in 1917–18 has been seen as a foundation stone of the ‘tri-faith’ America that emerged later in the twentieth century, the spirit of accommodation it reflected had been a feature of professional military life for generations, and the American experience was part of a phenomenon witnessed by Britons, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and South Africans alike. Although driven by hard military imperatives, this collaboration was also fed by a burgeoning spirit of pre-war ecumenism among Anglophone missionary organizations, and by the wartime growth and influence of ecumenical (or pan-denominational) organizations such as the SCM and YMCA. Such collaboration, of course, had its limits, and could be easily disrupted or curtailed. It was not shared in every part of the Anglophone armed forces (the navies of Great Britain, Australia and the United States, for example, maintained a strong Anglican bias throughout the war), and military veterans often returned (and reverted) to a relatively polarized civilian milieu largely untouched by the pragmatic ecumenism of service life. Indeed, in Ireland and Australia especially, World War I only served to sharpen sectarian tensions on the home front. Nevertheless, a mass of postwar evidence indicates that the experience of war served as a significant spur to religious tolerance, practical ecumenism, and later ecumenical endeavor. This chapter investigates the wartime origins and dynamics of this phenomenon, and its significance for Christian nationalism and internationalism in the first decades of the twentieth century.

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Nationalism and Internationalism in the Young Ecumenical Movement, 1895-1920s

Series: Theology and Mission in World Christianity, Volume: 34

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004707597

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 01 Mar 2025

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- Theology and World Christianity
  - General

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Chapter 8 Ecumenism and the Anglophone Armies of World War I: the British, Canadian, and American Experience

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Nationalism and Internationalism in the Young Ecumenical Movement, 1895-1920s

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