Saved to Save and Saved to Serve: Perspectives on Salvation Army History

The Salvation Army has now been around for more than one hundred and fifty years having celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2015 with an International Congress in London. Over the years both the Army and the world in which it appeared have changed beyond recognition. This is a good time for the movement to stop and look back--not just to celebrate but to see where it is today. The Army has not evolved in isolation from the world. Bringing its own history with it it nevertheless belongs to the twenty-first century world as much as William Booths little East End Mission belonged to nineteenth-century London. This book attempts to explore the interaction between mission and world as it has impacted the Armys beliefs and practices as well as the place it now occupies in the wider world. This critical and analytical study may also be of interest to those beyond the Armys ranks who would like to learn more about this remarkable organization. Saved to Save and Saved to Serve is not only an excellent introduction to the history of the Salvation Army but a brilliant analysis of the organizations development as a religious institution. Examining everything from its historical roots--its theology ecclesiology style of worship and social action--to its present-day attitude Hill shows us clearly just how the Army by a natural evolution and a deliberate program of institutionalization has progressed from a freestyle evangelical agency into a community church. --R. G. Moyles University of Alberta Canada Salvation Army historian This book is a rich history . . . a very helpful book for those of us trying to make sense of the Army from outside helping us to interpret language we would struggle to understand. I highly recommend this book. --Peter Lineham Massey University Albany Auckland New Zealand In this astounding page-turner Harold Hill articulates the Salvation Armys international story with a historians mind a cartoonists eye a theologians heart a prophets nerve and a practitioners calling to the back streets. This book is a significant contribution to social and religious history and an essential reference for Salvationists and allies in costly engagement with people in the confident hope that some will be saved and all will be served. --Colonel Margaret Hay former Principal of the Salvation Army International College for Officers London This valuable new history fills an important need for an up-to-date history of the Salvation Army that is neither triumphalist nor dismissive. It solidly combines historical objectivity with the theological acumen of a reflexive insider. Its frequent observations on events beyond Britain and North America make it a truly global history. I will be recommending it as a textbook for students of Salvation Army history. --Glen OBrien Booth College Sydney Australia Harold Hill is a retired Salvation Army officer in New Zealand and an adjunct teacher for Salvation Army training institutions in Australia and New Zealand. He is the author of Leadership in the Salvation Army (2007).