The First World War and the Mobilization of Biblical Scholarship

Description

This fascinating collection of essays charts, for the first time, the range of responses by scholars on both sides of the conflict to the outbreak of war in August 1914. The volume examines how biblical scholars, like their compatriots from every walk of life, responded to the great crisis they faced, and, with relatively few exceptions, were keen to contribute to the war effort. Some joined up as soldiers. More commonly, however, biblical scholars and theologians put pen to paper as part of the torrent of patriotic publication that arose both in the United Kingdom and in Germany. The contributors reveal that, in many cases, scholars were repeating or refining common arguments about the responsibility for the war. In Germany and Britain, where the Bible was still central to a Protestant national culture, we also find numerous more specialized works, where biblical scholars brought their own disciplinary expertise to bear on the matter of war in general, and this war in particular. The volume’s contributors thus offer new insights into the place of both the Bible and biblical scholarship in early 20th-century culture. Cover Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Notes on Contributors Part I: Introduction Chapter 1: Biblical Scholarship at War, 1914–1918 Part II: Individuals and Institutions Chapter 2: Maintaining the Light of Truth? The Mobilization of University Academics, 1914–1915 Chapter 3: For Christ and Kaiser: Caspar Rene Gregory and the First World War Chapter 4: Between Prophetic Critique and Raison D’etat : Rudolf Kittel on German Jews During the Great War and on Old Testament Hebrews in Biblical Wars Chapter 5: William Sanday, Modernism and the First World War Chapter 6: SOTS, SBL and WWI: Anglo-American Scholarly Societies and the Great War Part III: Biblical Texts and Themes Chapter 7: Thou Shalt not Kill, Unless . . . : The Decalogue in a Kaiserreich at War Chapter 8: Holy War and the Great War in German Protestant Scholarship 0n the old Testament Chapter 9: Psalms, Patriotism and Propaganda: A Favourite Book in Wartime Biblical Scholarship Chapter 10: Ecstasy Versus Ethics: The Impact of the First World War on German Biblical Scholarship on the Hebrew Prophets Chapter 11: Martyr: Title and First World War Context Chapter 12: The First World War, the Russian Revolution and the Fat of Social-Scientific Approaches to the new Testament and Christian Origins Chapter 13: A Disconnected Dialogue: Adolf Von Harnack, C.J. Cadoux and the Biblical Case for Peace at the Outbreak of the First World War Part IV: Response Chapter 14: The Great War and the Bible: Some Reflections Bibliography Name Index References Index