Publisher Description

The war was fought by the world's leading Christian nations, who presented the conflict as a holy war. A steady stream of patriotic and militaristic rhetoric was served to an unprecedented audience, using language that spoke of holy war and crusade, of apocalypse and Armageddon. But this rhetoric was not mere state propaganda. Philip Jenkins reveals how the widespread belief in angels, apparitions, and the supernatural, was a driving force throughout the war and shaped all three of the Abrahamic religions - Christianity, Judaism, and Islam - paving the way for modern views of religion and violence. The disappointed hopes and moral compromises that followed the war also shaped the political climate of the rest of the century, giving rise to such phenomena as Nazism, totalitarianism, and communism. Connecting remarkable incidents and characters - from Karl Barth to Carl Jung, the Christmas Truce to the Armenian Genocide - Jenkins creates a powerful and persuasive narrative that brings together global politics, history, and spiritual crisis. We cannot understand our present religious, political, and cultural climate without understanding the dramatic changes initiated by the First World War. The war created the world's religious map as we know it today.

Author Biography

Philip Jenkins is the Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. He has published articles and op-ed pieces in The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe and is a regular on radio shows. He was educated at Cambridge and has written over twenty books including The Lost History of Christianity, Jesus Wars, and The Next Christendom and over a hundred articles and reviews. He has won several book prizes in both the Christian and secular arena.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS
List of Maps vii
A Note About Terminology ix
Introduction: From Angels to Armageddon 1
ONE The Great War: The Age of Massacre 29
TWO God's War: Chris tian Nations, Holy Warfare, and the Kingdom of God 63
THREE Witnesses for Christ: Cosmic War, Sacrifi ce, and Martyrdom 87
FOUR The Ways of God: Faith, Heresy, and Superstition 109
FIVE The War of the End of the World: Visions of the Last Days 135
SIX Armageddon: Dreams of Apocalypse in the War's Savage Last Year 163
SEVEN The Sleep of Religion: Europe's Crisis and the Rise of Secular Messiahs 189
EIGHT The Ruins of Christendom: Reconstructing Chris tian Faith at the End of the Age 217
NINE A New Zion: The Crisis of European Judaism and the Vision of a New World 235
TEN Those from Below: The Spiritual Liberation of the World's Subject Peoples 269
ELEVEN Genocide: The Destruction of the Oldest Chris tian World 287
TWELVE African Prophets: How New Churches and New Hopes Arose Outside Europe 315
THIRTEEN Without a Caliph: The Muslim Quest for a Godly Political Order 333
Conclusion 367
Acknowledgments 379
Illustration Credits 381
Notes 383
Index 419

Review

`This bold new theory also shows how the First World War changed the world's "religious map" and in doing so paved the way for a "worldwide spiritual revolution."' * The Bookseller *
"Jenkins is especially instructive on its [WW1's] consequences for the world's - not simply Europe's religions." * WALL STREET JOURNAL *
"A historical tour de force… We must know the past in order to understand the present. Jenkins's penetrating study of World War I masterfully underscores that abstract truth." * CHRISTIANITY TODAY *
"A fascinating book in which Jenkins convincingly argues that we cannot understand the war without understanding religion… Jenkins summons academic evidence without sacrificing readability. It is hard to read for more than a few pages without being fascinated or surprised. In particular, he does a rigorous job of showing how many of today's disputes are rooted to varying degrees in the First World War." * Third Way *
"A work of the highest academic standard… written in such a way as to be highly accessible. It is a book of tremendous range and interest. Fascinating reading. Highly recommended!" * Pobl Dewi, Diocese of St Davids. *

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A paradigm-shifting history that reveals how the early Christian churches in the East helped to shape the Asia and the Christianity we know today

Review Quote

'This bold new theory also shows how the First World War changed the world's "religious map" and in doing so paved the way for a "worldwide spiritual revolution."'

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A paradigm-shifting history that reveals how the early Christian churches in the East helped to shape the Asia and the Christianity we know today

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