E-raamat: Church of England and the Second World War: Ethical Traditions in Anglican Public Theology

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations



1 War and Peace: Christian Ethical Traditions

1Christian Pacifism

2The Just War Tradition

3Wars JustificationJus ad Bellum

4Wars ConductJus in Bello

5Wars EndingJus Post Bellum

6Humanitarian Intervention

7Holy War and Crusade

8Holy War and Chivalry

9Classical Realism

10Christian Realism

11A Traditions-Based Approach



2 The Church of England and the British Constitution

1Establishment

2The First World War

3The Church Assembly

4Christian Socialism and COPEC

5The 1926 Strikes

6The 1928 Prayer Book

7The Rediscovery of Christian Civilisation

8The Abdication Crisis

9Foundations of the Welfare State

10The 1944 Education Act

11A Dynamically Evolving Relationship



3 The Pre-war Church of England and Nazi Germany: Uses and Limits of Soft
Power

1The Anglican Legacy of Protesting Persecution

2Responses to Persecution of the Jews

3The German Church Struggle

4Anglican Responses to the German Church Struggle

5The Autumn 1934 Crisis

6Temple and the Concentration Camps

7Bell and the Refugees

8Repression Intensifies in 1935

9Ribbentrop in London

10Escalating Conflicts, 19361937

11Niemöllers Trial and Imprisonment

12Bells Refugee Advocacy

13After Kristallnacht

14Bells Lucien Wolf Lecture

15The End of the Church Struggle

16The Uses and Limits of Soft Power



4 The Churchs Function in Wartime: To Be Still the Church

1Wartime Days of Prayer

2Military Chaplaincies in Wartime

3The Clergy Exemption

4The Wartime Use of Church Buildings

5The Wartime Church and the British Constitution

5Justifying War: Jus ad Bellum and Christian Realism

1The Just War in Anglican Context

2The Just War in 19141918

3An Incipient Christian Realism

4The Treaty and the Covenant

5The Failure of Collective Security

6A Righteously Regulated Coercion

7The 1937 Oxford Conference

8Appeasement and Its Discontents

9The Munich Agreement

10From Kristallnacht to Prague

11A Just War Debate on the Eve of War

12The Just War in the Theological Colleges

13Eve of War Sermons

14Thoughts in War Time

15A Plain Duty

16Waging Just War Justly

17Relevance of the Jus ad Bellum and Christian Realist Traditions



6 War as Divine Judgement: the Call to Repentance and Prayer

1War in the Anglican Liturgical Tradition

2Challenges to a Providential Universe

3Divine Judgement in World War I

4The Theology of Crisis

5Divine Judgement in 19391940

6Critiques of Divine Judgement

7Prayers for Victory

8A Vanishing Discourse



7 The Struggle for Christian Civilisation: Holy War, Crusade, and Chivalry

1Crusade and Chivalry in the Great War

2The Struggle for Civilisation in 1939

3Five Books of 1939

4Henson: the Good Fight

5The Persistence of Chivalry

6Henson: Last Words in Westminster Abbey

7Was the Second World War a Crusade?



8 Justice in Warfare I: the City-Bombing Debate

1Reprisals in World War I

2Protesting Inter-war Atrocities

3The First Year of War

4A New Method of Warfare

5The Committee to Abolish Night Bombing

6The May 1941 Convocation

7Churchill and Retribution

8The Switch to Area Bombing

9Temples First Year at Lambeth

10The Air War Escalates

11Seeking Clarifications

12The Bishops Speech

13Temples Christian Realism

14Seed of Chaos

15Sentimental Nonsense and Sheer Humbug

16The Bombing of Ethics

17Dresden and Churchill

18Competing Ethical Perspectives



9 Justice in Warfare II: Internment, Prisoners of War, Blockade

1Internment of Enemy Aliens

2Shackling Prisoners of War

3Blockade and Famine Relief

4Relevance of the Jus in Bello Tradition

10Peace Aims and Jus Post Bellum

1 Seeking an Early Settlement

2The Berggrav Initiative

3New Years Resolutions

4Christianity and World Order

5The Hope of a New World

6Sword of the Spirit

7The December 1940 Joint Letter

8The Stoll Theatre Meetings

9The Canterbury Convocation and Churchill

10The Elusive Quest for Christian Cooperation

11Vansittartism

12Bells Visit to Sweden

13Bells Return to England

14Campaigning for the Resistance

15Germany and the Hitlerite State

16News from America and Russia

17Temple on the Balance of Power

18The Momentous Summer of 1944

19Debating the Occupation

20Envisioning Europes Future

21Peace Aims and Jus Post Bellum



11 The Church of England and the Pacifist Conscience

1Conscience and Objection

2Conscientious Objection in British Law

3Conscientious Objection in World War I

4Anglican Pacifism between the Wars

5Dick Sheppard

6The Peace Army

7The Peace Pledge Union

8Saying No to War

9Heresy versus Apostasy

10The Church Assembly Debates Pacifism

11Over the Bridge to Lambeth

12Pacifism as a Personal Vocation

13A Pacifist Interpretation of Article 37

14The Archbishops Meet the APF

15Pacifist Episcopacy

16An Anglican Compromise



12 The Pacifist Witness in the Church of England

1A Pacifist Academic: Charles Raven

2A Pacifist Parson: Percy Hartill

3A Pacifist Mystic: Evelyn Underhill

4A Pacifist Activist: Vera Brittain

5Assessing the Anglican Pacifist Witness



13 The Church of England and the Holocaust

1Antisemitism and Ambivalence

2Henson on Judaism

3James Parkes on Church and Synagogue

4The Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ)

5Initial Responses to Genocide

6The Allied Joint Declaration

7The Bar of History, Humanity, and God

8The Bermuda Conference

9Radio Broadcasts to Hungary

10Vagaries of Bystander Scholarship

11Lawsons Critique

12Assessing the Anglican Witness



Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

John D. Alexander is a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he has served parishes in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. He holds degrees in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University (BA and MA) and in theology from Virginia Theological Seminary (M.Div.), Nashotah House (STM), and Boston University School of Theology (Ph.D.). He has contributed scholarly articles and reviews to Anglican and Episcopal History, Anglican Theological Review, and Ecclesiology. In 2024 he was awarded the Nelson Burr Prize of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church.