'The Book and the Sword': The Bible in the Experience and Legacy of the Great War

The Bible is an inescapable part of the cultural landscape of WW1. It was perhaps the single most widely-read book during the war. It offered inspiration and consolation to soldiers and civilians alike. Preachers and politicians used it to instil national pride and fighting spirit, and conscientious objectors in defence of pacifism. It offered concepts and metaphors which helped men and women make sense of their everyday experience. Its words were quoted with pious hope on gravestones and war memorials, and recast by angry poets. It was read in every language and on all sides of the conflict by Christians (Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox) and by Jews. Despite the challenges of 19th-century advances in science and biblical criticism, the Bible remained at the centre of Western culture.

Yet the Bible is something of a blind spot in our understanding of the Great War and its legacy. It is a popular commonplace that the war provoked a crisis of belief across the Western world. In Britain, at least, the war has regularly been seen as the epitome of waste and futility, and a source of deep disenchantment with traditional religious values. Nevertheless, historians increasingly recognize that religious faith remained a fundamental source of identity, conviction and morale both in the trenches and on the home front. The centrality of the Bible to that faith is clear from the millions of Bibles printed and distributed each year of the war (especially to soldiers), the thousands of biblical sermons preached every week, and the continued vitality of both popular and scholarly publishing on biblical themes. The Bible and biblical interpretation therefore offer an important lens through which to examine the religious and cultural experience of a world at war, especially since it is a fundamental common point of reference across different religious traditions, institutions and national contexts.

Our project will focus on two main questions: How did the Bible shape and influence people's experience of WW1, and how did the war impact its reading and interpretation? To address these questions we will set up three workshops to discuss the Bible in wartime culture. These will focus on the contribution of biblical scholars and the development of scholarship during the war, the use of the Bible on the front lines by Jewish and Christian soldiers, the role of the Bible in preaching and popular piety, and the place of the Bible in the memory and legacy of the war. We will attend to both the Allied and the Central Powers, allowing comparison of different national and religious contexts.

We will include participants from a range of disciplines (biblical studies, theology and religious studies, history, literary studies, Jewish studies) as well as from key faith-based organisations and cultural agencies. Our aim is to support the exchange of ideas across disciplinary boundaries and to consolidate and extend research links between the UK and other parts of the world by bringing together academics from countries on both sides of the conflict. The international and interdenominational/interfaith aspect of the project is especially important because the history of WW1 has tended to be compartmentalized into different 'national stories'. The Bible was common to all sides but often used very differently, and therefore makes an ideal point of comparison. The workshops will set the agenda for new research on the Bible and warfare, and work to establish a new international centre for the study of the Bible and armed conflict.

The project will also foster public understanding of the Bible's place in the experience and legacy of WW1. We will work with the Bible Society to produce a special magazine edition, organise workshops for religious practitioners to coincide with Remembrance Day 2015 and the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme in 2016, and lay on public lectures and presentations aimed at the wider public in both the UK and Germany.

The Bible remains a fundamental part of the way people throughout Europe encounter the history and legacy of the First World War, especially through inscriptions on war memorials and through liturgical acts of remembrance that form the centrepiece of a season of remembrance, that in Britain at least has become increasingly central to the 'national calendar' (perhaps as a response to the ongoing conflicts and military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan).

We envisage impact activities that will address the following main topics:
1) The use and impact of the Bible during the war, not only by clergy and other professionals, but also by ordinary people at home and at the front.
2) The role of the Bible in the legacy of the war, in memorials and liturgy as well as literature, art and music.
3) The place of the Bible within contemporary cultures of national remembrance.
4) The question of the relationship between scriptural religion and violence.

We currently have plans for several impact events:
1) A special edition of the Bible Society's magazine The Bible in TransMission, which will be edited by the PI in collaboration with other participants in the network. The Bible in TransMission is a free magazine, which is published twice a year, and focuses on a particular topic or theme. It has a print circulation of 19,000, reaching primarily church leaders, and is also available to download from the Bible Society's website.
2) Two day-workshops for clergy and other practitioners on 'The Bible, War, and Remembrance' in association with the Westcott Foundation (Cambridge) in October 2015 and the St Paul's Cathedral Forum (London) in October 2016. We will also organise a workshop for trainee ministers from both Britain and Germany in collaboration with the Wittenberger Predigerseminar (July 2016).
3) A major public lecture by Prof. Friedrich Wilhelm Graz in association with our Munich workshop. He is a well-known speaker who regularly draws large audiences (September 2016).
4) A public lecture and/or panel discussion at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas (October 2015).
5) A contribution to the Cambridge Interfaith Programme/Coexist Foundation programme at the Cheltenham Literary Festival (October 2016).
6) A public lecture and/or panel discussion in Chester, organised in collaboration with the University of Chester and the Chester Theological Society (May 2016).

Who will benefit?
An important group of beneficiaries will be those faith leaders who make up the audience of the Bible Society magazine and who participate in the workshops. There will also be a wider (if less measurable) impact as these faith leaders engage with questions of the war and remembrance with their own local communities and congregations. Other beneficiaries will be those members of the public that attend the lectures and panel discussions in Cambridge, Munich, Cheltenham, and Chester.

How will they benefit?
The magazine and workshops will provide resources for the leaders of religious organizations to engage in debate about the history and impact of the war, especially its impact on religious belief. The workshops in particular will offer an opportunity for professional clergy (and clergy in training) to reflect critically on their own practice, and to develop pastoral and liturgical resources for use in contexts of remembrance.
Both the faith-based projects and the cultural events can feed into public debate about the relationship between religious faith, scriptures and violence - themes which have been especially prominent since 9/11, and which can be informed by attention to both warmongering and pacifist use of the Bible during 1914-18.

The network will also lay the groundwork for further impact events, which would accompany our development of an ongoing research agenda relating to the Bible and wartime violence.