Baptists and War: Essays on Baptists and Military Conflict 1640s-1990s: 5 (McMaster General Studies)

While Baptists through the years have been certain that war is hell they have not always been able to agree on how to respond to it. This book traces much of this troubled relationship from the days of Baptist origins with close ties to pacifist Anabaptists to the responses of Baptists in America to the war in Vietnam. Essays also include discussions of the English Baptist Andrew Fullers response to the threat of Napoleon how Baptists in America dealt with the War of 1812 the support of Canadian Baptists for Britains war in Sudan and Abyssinia in the 1880s the decisive effect of the First World War on Canadas T. T. Shields the response of Australian Baptists to the Second World War and how Russian Baptists dealt with the Cold War. These chapters provide important analyses of Baptist reactions to one of societys most intractable problems. Conflict challenges the Christian conscience fostering divergent responses. Hence Baptists have commonly sought peace sometimes to the extent of condemning war outright but equally they have often believed that justice required the taking up of arms even with enthusiasm. The detailed and penetrating international studies contained in this book illuminate contrasting attitudes over the centuries showing how war has put Baptists to the test spiritually as well as materially. --David Bebbington Professor of History University of Stirling Stirling Scotland UK Baptists have had a varied approach to war from the Pietist/Reformed tensions of four hundred years ago to the reactions to the Vietnam War. This work explores the theme in different time periods and using a number of individuals as case studies opens the past so the reader can reflect on the present. The volume is an important contribution to both Baptist studies and the Christian approach to war and peace. --Robert Wilson Professor of Church History Acadia Divinity College Wolfville Canada Gordon L. Heath is Associate Professor of Christian History at McMaster Divinity College Hamilton Ontario and Centenary Chair in World Christianity. He is the author of A War with a Silver Lining: Canadian Protestant Churches and the South African War 1899-1902 (2009). Michael A. G. Haykin is Professor of Church History at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville KY. He is the author of a number of books dealing with patristic and Baptist studies.