Church of England and the Second World War

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.

• ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgementsAbbreviations1 War and Peace: Christian Ethical Traditions1 Christian Pacifism2 The Just War Tradition3 War’s Justification—Jus ad Bellum4 War’s Conduct—Jus in Bello5 War’s Ending—Jus Post Bellum6 Humanitarian Intervention7 Holy War and Crusade8 Holy War and Chivalry9 Classical Realism10 Christian Realism11 A Traditions-Based Approach2 The Church of England and the British Constitution1 Establishment2 The First World War3 The Church Assembly4 Christian Socialism and COPEC5 The 1926 Strikes6 The 1928 Prayer Book7 The Rediscovery of Christian Civilisation8 The Abdication Crisis9 Foundations of the Welfare State10 The 1944 Education Act11 A Dynamically Evolving Relationship3 The Pre-war Church of England and Nazi Germany: Uses and Limits of Soft Power1 The Anglican Legacy of Protesting Persecution2 Responses to Persecution of the Jews3 The German Church Struggle4 Anglican Responses to the German Church Struggle5 The Autumn 1934 Crisis6 Temple and the Concentration Camps7 Bell and the Refugees8 Repression Intensifies in 19359 Ribbentrop in London10 Escalating Conflicts, 1936–193711 Niemöller’s Trial and Imprisonment12 Bell’s Refugee Advocacy13 After Kristallnacht14 Bell’s Lucien Wolf Lecture15 The End of the Church Struggle16 The Uses and Limits of Soft Power4 The Church’s Function in Wartime: ‘To Be Still the Church’1 Wartime Days of Prayer2 Military Chaplaincies in Wartime3 The Clergy Exemption4 The Wartime Use of Church Buildings5 The Wartime Church and the British Constitution5 Justifying War: Jus ad Bellum and Christian Realism1 The Just War in Anglican Context2 The Just War in 1914–19183 An Incipient Christian Realism4 The Treaty and the Covenant5 The Failure of Collective Security6 A Righteously Regulated Coercion7 The 1937 Oxford Conference8 Appeasement and Its Discontents9 The Munich Agreement10 From Kristallnacht to Prague11 A Just War Debate on the Eve of War12 The Just War in the Theological Colleges13 Eve of War Sermons14 Thoughts in War Time15 A Plain Duty16 Waging Just War Justly17 Relevance of the Jus ad Bellum and Christian Realist Traditions6 War as Divine Judgement: the Call to Repentance and Prayer1 War in the Anglican Liturgical Tradition2 Challenges to a Providential Universe3 Divine Judgement in World War I4 The Theology of Crisis5 Divine Judgement in 1939–19406 Critiques of Divine Judgement7 Prayers for Victory8 A Vanishing Discourse7 The Struggle for Christian Civilisation: Holy War, Crusade, and Chivalry1 Crusade and Chivalry in the Great War2 The Struggle for Civilisation in 19393 Five Books of 19394 Henson: the Good Fight5 The Persistence of Chivalry6 Henson: Last Words in Westminster Abbey7 Was the Second World War a Crusade?8 Justice in Warfare I: the City-Bombing Debate1 Reprisals in World War I2 Protesting Inter-war Atrocities3 The First Year of War4 A New Method of Warfare5 The Committee to Abolish Night Bombing6 The May 1941 Convocation7 Churchill and Retribution8 The Switch to Area Bombing9 Temple’s First Year at Lambeth10 The Air War Escalates11 Seeking Clarifications12 The Bishop’s Speech13 Temple’s Christian Realism14 Seed of Chaos15 Sentimental Nonsense and Sheer Humbug16 The Bombing of Ethics17 Dresden and Churchill18 Competing Ethical Perspectives9 Justice in Warfare II: Internment, Prisoners of War, Blockade1 Internment of Enemy Aliens2 Shackling Prisoners of War3 Blockade and Famine Relief4 Relevance of the Jus in Bello Tradition10 Peace Aims and Jus Post Bellum1 Seeking an Early Settlement2 The Berggrav Initiative3 New Year’s Resolutions4 Christianity and World Order5 The Hope of a New World6 Sword of the Spirit7 The December 1940 Joint Letter8 The Stoll Theatre Meetings9 The Canterbury Convocation and Churchill10 The Elusive Quest for Christian Cooperation11 Vansittartism12 Bell’s Visit to Sweden13 Bell’s Return to England14 Campaigning for the Resistance15 Germany and the Hitlerite State16 News from America and Russia17 Temple on the Balance of Power18 The Momentous Summer of 194419 Debating the Occupation20 Envisioning Europe’s Future21 Peace Aims and Jus Post Bellum11 The Church of England and the Pacifist Conscience1 Conscience and Objection2 Conscientious Objection in British Law3 Conscientious Objection in World War I4 Anglican Pacifism between the Wars5 Dick Sheppard6 The Peace Army7 The Peace Pledge Union8 Saying No to War9 Heresy versus Apostasy10 The Church Assembly Debates Pacifism11 Over the Bridge to Lambeth12 Pacifism as a Personal Vocation13 A Pacifist Interpretation of Article 3714 The Archbishops Meet the APF15 Pacifist Episcopacy16 An Anglican Compromise12 The Pacifist Witness in the Church of England1 A Pacifist Academic: Charles Raven2 A Pacifist Parson: Percy Hartill3 A Pacifist Mystic: Evelyn Underhill4 A Pacifist Activist: Vera Brittain5 Assessing the Anglican Pacifist Witness13 The Church of England and the Holocaust1 Antisemitism and Ambivalence2 Henson on Judaism3 James Parkes on Church and Synagogue4 The Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ)5 Initial Responses to Genocide6 The Allied Joint Declaration7 The Bar of History, Humanity, and God8 The Bermuda Conference9 Radio Broadcasts to Hungary10 Vagaries of Bystander Scholarship11 Lawson’s Critique12 Assessing the Anglican WitnessConclusionBibliographyIndex

In this new book, John D. Alexander draws together myriad threads to achieve one immense survey, moving freely and boldly from the principles and ideals which characterized the Church of England in earlier periods to the vivid debates which arose during the conflict with Nazi totalitarianism. Alexander shows how the experience of international warfare changed much in the life of the national church, not only inspiring a deeper public piety and fashioning new responsibilities, but also provoking public controversies about the requirements of Christian justice. Based on a wealth of published and archival material, this welcome study will make a valuable contribution, not only to the widening field of Anglican studies, but also to our picture of the restless landscapes of modern religious history. - Andrew Chandler, Professor of Modern History, University of Chichester, UK and author of British Christians and the Third Reich: Church, State and the Judgement of Nations (Cambridge University Press, 2022). By engaging Anglican ethical responses to the challenges of war, John D. Alexander crafts a meticulously researched and expertly organised interdisciplinary study of the Church of England and the Second World War. Drawing on diverse lay and clergy voices, the author distils a wide range of material with depth and clarity. Written in an accessible and compelling style for academic and general readers, this evocative book is a generational contribution to the field. - Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, Historiographer of the Episcopal Church and Editor-in-Chief of Anglican and Episcopal History The public theology of Anglican leaders in World War II was astonishingly wide-ranging, deeply informed by the gospel and the church's tradition, and sometimes bitingly effective. John Alexander's thorough, subtle, elegantly written and magisterial study of the Church of England's witness as 'the nation's conscience' during this period is profoundly instructive for the constrained judgments of today's Christians. A remarkable and revelatory volume. - Ephraim Radner, Professor of Historical Theology (Emeritus), Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, Canada.