War, Peace and the British Free Churches, 1914-1945

Andrew Chandler is Professor in Modern History at the University of Chichester, UK. He is the author of several books, including The Church of England in the Twentieth Century: The Church Commissioners and the Politics of Reform (2005) and George Bell, Bishop of Chichester: Church, State and Resistance in the Age of Dictatorship (2016).David Ceri Jones is Reader in Modern History at University of Aberystwyth, UK. He has written several books, including most recently, as a co-author, A History of Christianity in Wales (2022).

• IntroductionAndrew Chandler, University of ChichesterOxford’s Free Churches and the outbreak of the Great War in 1914.Martin Wellings, Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History, Oxford Brookes University‘The Fellowship of trial’: Religious Rhetoric in the First World War: The Sermons of Walter Mursell, Minister of Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist Church, Paisley.Brian Talbot, Senior Research Fellow, International Baptist Theological Seminary, AmsterdamPadre Ernest Lodge Watson (1878-1951) and Army Chaplaincy during the First World War.Neil Allison, Official Historian to the United Navy, Army and Air Force Board; Highland Theological College, University of Highlands and Islands‘Who speaks for the Christians’? The Great War and Conscientious Objectors in the Church of Christ: An Expansion in Tribute to Mike Casey.Peter Ackers, Emeritus Professor, Loughborough UniversityMethodism and Military Chaplaincy, 1900-30Peter Howson, honorary research fellow, Oxford Brookes University.The Colleges of Mansfield Road, Oxford, in the era of the Great WarDavid Seymour, Independent scholarStrict Baptist Reactions to War, 1914-19Kenneth Dix and Judith James, Strict Baptist Historical SocietyThe Warmongering Pacifist: A Family StoryJohn G. Ellis, Former Moderator, United Reformed ChurchFrom pride in the Living to Commemorating the Dead: Rolls of Honour in the First World War.Anne C. Brook, Independent scholar‘Divinely Ordained for the World's Life’: The Free Churches and the League of NationsMarkku Ruotsila, University of HelsinkiBuilding God’s Kingdom on Earth: Lord Davies of Llandinum, Gwilym Davies and Christianising the Interwar Quest for Peace.Evan Lawry, University of AberystwythHenry Carter, British Methodism and the Search for Peace.Michael Hughes, Professor of Modern History, University of Lancaster‘Swords and Ploughshares’: The Free Churches and the Arms Trade in twentieth-Century Britain.Pippa Catterall, Professor of History and Policy, University of WestminsterBritish Congregationalism, Liberalism and Pacifism in the middle twentieth century: the place of Nathaniel Micklem.Andrew Chandler, University of ChichesterMartyn Lloyd Jones and the Evangelical Response to War and Peace.David Ceri Jones, University of AberystwythIndex

This rich volume sheds new light on the Nonconformist Conscience and the chapels’ attitudes to armed conflict during and between the twentieth century’s two world wars. The result of fresh research, it is not only historically insightful but has much to teach us today when ‘wars and rumours of wars’ abound.