The Great and Holy War

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The Great and Holy War

by Philip Jenkins

IntroductIon

1. The First World War was a vast outbreak of lethal vio-lence that transformed the world. Americans usually pay much less attention to it than to conflicts like the Civil War or World War II. Our images of the First World War are usually taken from the writings of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, the Lost Generation, and even from Snoopy fighting the Red Baron. Why do you think that is? Why does WWI play a much smaller part in our memory than those other events? When you think of World War I, what do you think of?

readIng and dIscussIon guIde for



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2. In particular, people often remember WWI as marking a great transformation of Western religion: the war “marked the end of illusions, and of faith itself ” (p. 2). Following from those Lost Generation writers, we often think that standard patterns of religion could not sur-vive the carnage of the war. But is that idea correct?

3. The core of Philip Jenkins’s argument is quite different. As he says, “Without appreciating its religious and spir-itual aspects, we cannot understand the First World War. More importantly, though, the world’s modern religious history makes no sense except in the context of that terrible conflict. The war created our reality” (p. 28). Does this idea strike you as surprising or shocking? Is it convincing?

4. Have you ever considered how World War I played a role in shaping the contemporary world? At this point in the book, what connections can you already make between the events of 1914–1918 and today?

chapter one the great War: the age of Massacre

1. Jenkins challenges “the familiar idea that the war was a spasm of blundering savagery lacking any intelligi-ble rationale or purpose, and that only the naïve would believe that either side had any more cause or motivation worthy of the name” (pp. 32–33). Do you agree with Jenkins’s claim here? What evidence does



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he use to make his argument? Is there a case to be made that one or the other side was actually fighting for a good cause?

2. How did the surge in technological innovation affect the war? How did it affect society at the time, and how is it affecting society today?

3. In describing WWI, Jenkins often draws parallels with the Second World War, and at some points even describes the behavior of Germany as quite similar in both wars. How and why does he do that? Does that idea strike you as shocking? Does he make his case?

4. In terms of military strategy and tactics, how did the First World War foreshadow the Second?

5. The phrase trench warfare has come down to us as marking futility, military stupidity, and random blood-shed. How does Jenkins describe and explain this phe-nomenon? Why does the phrase trench warfare misstate the realities of the war?

6. The war killed many millions of soldiers and civilians. But just why was it so tremendously bloody? How does Jenkins explain this? Do you agree with his explanations?



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chapter tWo god’s War: chrIstIan natIons, holy Warfare,

and the KIngdoM of god

1. “Generally, when religious leaders had a primary iden-tification with a state—as most did—they not only abandoned words of peace and reconciliation but advo-cated strident doctrines of holy war and crusade” (p. 66). This alliance between religious institutions and national politics is essential to understanding World War I. Discuss why you think this is. Where in the world, and in different religions, do you see similar alli-ances existing today?

2. On pages 73–85, Jenkins notes that “one Western coun-try above all stands out for the power and consistency of religious-based militarism, and that was Germany” (p. 74). What was it about German history and culture that made the citizens of this particular country so zealously in favor of World War I? Is Jenkins fair in the case he makes about Germany? Could one argue that other countries were as much to blame?

3. German proponents of World War I “gave little thought to the destructive power of war or the losses that would be a necessary sacrifice in the greater cause” (p. 77). Instead, they spoke of the war as “a cure for individual-ism,” as “presenting the highest moral test,” and as lead-ing “believers from death to life” (p. 77). If you have seen political leaders today describe military conflicts in this way, give some examples.



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4. Such thinkers (in Germany and elsewhere) usually spoke as convinced Christians. To modern eyes, though, they had totally misunderstood central parts of the Christian message. Why do you think they got things so completely wrong?

5. One of Jenkins’s key arguments is about the source of these ideas of holy warfare. Jenkins argues that ordi-nary people are much more religious than we might think, and a lot of these ideas arise spontaneously from the grass roots. What do you think of his claims? Did these religious ideas come from governments, or were they already widespread among ordinary people?

6. The book includes many propaganda posters and depictions that use religious ideas, including Christ himself. What do you think of such images? Could any country use something like this today? What does that say about how ideas have changed since WWI?

chapter three WItnesses for chrIst: cosMIc War,

sacrIfIce, and MartyrdoM

1. “Already by 1916, cinema represented an enormous cul-tural force, with the capacity to reach audiences world-wide, and viewing publics showed an inexhaustible appetite for war-related themes” (p. 95). How did cinema transform how people perceived World War I? What messages do contemporary movies send about war?



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2. According to Jenkins, two similar themes appear in every country’s contemporary interpretation of World War I: first, “the framing of the nation’s enemies as anti-Christians, if not actually the Antichrist” and, second, “the potent concepts of martyrdom and redemptive sacrifice” (p. 96). What do you think was the purpose of such religiously charged language? Have you heard these two themes used today in wartime language? If so, where have you heard them?

3. Did any one church or faith tradition stand out from the others in its attitudes to war and violence? Do any of the religious figures of the time particularly impress you by what they said and wrote? Do the views of any of those religious leaders particularly shock or depress you?

4. How did Americans understand the war in religious terms? Were American understandings the same as those of European countries? If not, why do you think those differences occurred?

5. What role did ideas of honor play in contemporary understandings of war?

chapter four the Ways of god: faIth, heresy, and superstItIon

1. “Sometimes war experiences inspired a deeper com-mitment to one’s original faith, but in Britain, the war and its immediate aftermath witnessed many conver-sions to Catholicism” (p. 120). What was it about



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Catholicism that attracted non-Catholics to Catholic beliefs and practices during World War I in Britain?

2. Jenkins recounts the story of the Hindenburg statue in Germany (pp. 129–30) to make the point that the out-pouring of supernatural and mystical belief and prac-tices among both combatants and noncombatants during World War I “represents a juxtaposition of ancient and modern, scientific and superstitious, that we often find in the war years” (p. 130). Why does Jen-kins suggest that wartime produces such contradictory experiences?

3. Jenkins talks a great deal about ideas that to us seem superstitious or New Age, including supernatural visions and apparitions, dream-visions, and communi-cation with the dead, angels, and ghosts. Is he right to put so much emphasis on these ideas? If they are so important, what does that suggest about the religious character of Europe just a century ago?

4. What does the story of the Angel of Mons suggest about the way ordinary people thought and what they believed at this time? What does the belief in angels tell us about the nature of religion during WWI? Could a story like that be believed in the same way today? If not, what has changed in the past hundred years?



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chapter fIve the War of the end of the World:

vIsIons of the last days

1. Just as The Scofield Reference Bible played a key role in igniting the apocalyptic imagination of English-speaking Protestants in the first decades of the twenti-eth century, so the Left Behind series has influenced American evangelicals in recent decades (p. 138). How have modern-day evangelicals responded to ideas of this sort, particularly in matters relating to war and religious conflict in the Middle East?

2. Jenkins writes a lot about visions of the End Times and the apocalypse. How did these ideas manifest in the art and culture of the WWI era? How were propagandists able to exploit them for their own purposes?

3. Jenkins notes that the years surrounding World War I also witnessed the rise of “societies and study groups devoted to the spiritual aspects of racial theory” (p. 160). What is the connection between this era’s tendency toward the esoteric, the mystical, and the apocalyptic and the rise of a spiritualized perspective on race?

4. How did contemporary writers use the language of race in trying to justify and explain the war?



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chapter sIx arMageddon: dreaMs of apocalypse

In the War’s savage last year

1. World War I in general offered numerous “signs and portents” (p. 165) concerning the end of the world, and 1917 in particular featured a uniquely high con-centration of them. What was it about the events of the war’s final year that made it ripe for apocalyptic interpretation?

2. In 1917, the revolution and subsequent abdication of the Russian tsar “sent religious believers racing to their Bibles to find exactly how this toppling of thrones meshed with prophecies in the book of Daniel and else-where” (p. 169). Have you, or anyone you know, ever turned to passages of scripture to help make sense of contemporary events? Why or why not?

3. Was there an episode or event in this chapter that par-ticularly surprised you or grabbed your attention in illustrating the thought-world of people at the time? What was it?

4. Why were people in 1918 so willing to see the images of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in this mod-ern world of tanks, poison gas, and aircraft?



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chapter seven the sleep of relIgIon: europe’s crIsIs

and the rIse of secular MessIahs

1. Jenkins suggests that World War I “did not kill reli-gion” but that “religion could not remain unaffected, or untainted” (p. 191) by the effects of the war. After read-ing this chapter, how would you describe the impact of World War I on religion and spirituality in participat-ing nations?

2. How did religious and mystical ideas shape the ways people remembered and commemorated the war dead?

3. In looking at the effects of World War I on the religious views of American combatants, “we should think less of disenchantment so much as re-enchantment, a renewed interest in spirituality, and a quest for cer-tainty” (p. 194). Does that idea surprise or shock you? How does understanding this help us make sense of what took place in American culture in subsequent decades?

4. Jenkins argues that movements like fascism and com-munism drew heavily on the religious ideas and imag-ery of the wartime years. How and why did they do that? How does that affect our understanding of move-ments like Nazism? Can we see Nazism as a response to the events and conditions of WWI, especially the way it ended?



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chapter eIght the ruIns of chrIstendoM: reconstructIng

chrIstIan faIth at the end of the age

1. Jenkins notes that World War I forced Christians at the time to reconsider their “responses to war and the state” (p. 218). What types of responses emerged dur-ing these years? How do you personally understand the relationship of Christianity to “war and the state”? How is your perspective a product of the years surrounding World War I?

2. “For [Karl] Barth, reliance on individual feeling was a path to destruction. Christians should be alarmed when mainstream culture starts finding the faith unthreatening, or even begins to think that Christianity makes sense” (p. 223). What do you make of Barth’s assessment of Christianity in the early twentieth cen-tury? What might Barth say about the state of Christi-anity in America today?

3. How did Catholics respond to the horrors of WWI? What was the long-term influence of those responses in later history?

chapter nIne a neW ZIon: the crIsIs of european JudaIsM

and the vIsIon of a neW World

1. How does learning more about the history of the rise of both anti-Semitism and Zionism during the years sur-



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rounding World War I deepen your understanding of those realities as they exist today?

2. The history of Jews in Germany in the first few decades of the twentieth century is a complicated one. After reading this chapter, how would you describe the coun-try’s evolution from seeing a deep compatibility between Judaism and German nationalism before World War I to finding a deep hostility between the two after the war?

3. Why did so many nationalists and rightists blame the Jews for the events and outcome of WWI?

4. Do you agree with Jenkins’s argument that the First World War laid the essential foundation for Nazism and the Holocaust?

chapter ten those froM BeloW: the spIrItual lIBeratIon

of the World’s suBJect peoples

1. World War I “was a worldwide conflict, with savagery unleashed across Africa, Asia, and Oceania: it was a war of jungles, oceans, and steppes, as much as of Flan-ders fields” (p. 270). Before reading this chapter, had you ever considered the impact of the war on these areas and peoples of the world? Why or why not?

2. How did the combatant nations try to stir up unrest among the colonial subjects of their enemies? What were the unexpected consequences of these efforts?



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Can you think of modern parallels to that kind of phe-nomenon, in Afghanistan or elsewhere?

3. Of all of the anticolonial uprisings in the years sur-rounding World War I, why does Jenkins single out the mutiny of Indian troops at the British base of Singapore in particular? What has been the long-term religious significance of this mutiny?

4. How do Ireland and Irish affairs feature in this story? Can we see much of modern Irish history as a response to WWI?

chapter eleven genocIde: the destructIon of the

oldest chrIstIan World

1. “We cannot understand the modern history of the Middle East without acknowledging distinctively Christian politics. Right up to the present day, distant echoes of the bloody events during and immediately after the Great War reverberate through the politics of Arab nations” (p. 311). How does knowing more about the history of the Middle East, including its participa-tion in World War I and its aftermath, help us more fully understand this complicated part of the world?

2. “But for all their efforts to lead the Arab world,” Jenkins writes, “Christians have steadily lost ground, most spec-tacularly in the past quarter century. Since the late 1980s, secular regimes and movements in the Middle East have suffered repeated blows, which have cumulatively been



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disastrous for Christian populations” (pp. 313–14). What are your thoughts about this statement? Can the influence of ISIS be interpreted as a continuation of this trend? How so?

3. Some scholars debate whether we can apply the word genocide to the destruction of the Armenians in this era. What do you think about those arguments?

chapter tWelve afrIcan prophets: hoW neW churches and neW hopes arose outsIde europe

1. Jenkins writes that it is difficult “to credit that some black Africans found Christianity appealing, even lib-erating, but they did” (p. 321). How would you explain why many black Africans found the Christian faith appealing during World War I?

2. Two factors played key roles in igniting the “African Pentecost” or “African reformation”: World War I and the 1918 influenza pandemic (p. 325). How did these two factors facilitate the explosion of Christianity in Africa in the early twentieth century? Why do times of pain and suffering—in this case, war and plague—often lead to growth and transformation?



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chapter thIrteen WIthout a calIph: the MuslIM Quest

for a godly polItIcal order

1. Jenkins claims that the “collapse of the Ottoman Empire sent tremors through Muslim regions. … The resulting postwar search for new sources of authority led to the creation or revival of virtually all the Islamic movements that we know in the modern world” (p. 334). What similarities are there between the search for authority in Islam after World War I and the search for authority in Christianity (see chapter 8) during the same period? What differences are there between the two?

2. “Through its vast donations to religious causes and building enterprises, the Saudi state has encouraged a worldwide tilt toward strict Salafi and fundamentalist Islam very different from the once-dominant Sufi mod-els” (p. 366). How did Saudi Arabia come to figure so prominently in the Muslim world? How might the Mus-lim world that we know today be different if another country had had Saudi Arabia’s influence instead?

3. How did WWI produce the modern nations of India and Pakistan?

4. Jenkins argues that the First World War made the Islamic world as we know it today, not just the individ-ual nations, but most of its ideas and ideologies. Is that claim justified? How do we see that heritage playing



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out in modern-day news stories about Islam in its vari-ous forms?

conclusIon

1. What did you learn about World War I that surprised you? How has reading this book equipped you to resist “oversimple” interpretations of World War I (p. 367)? Does understanding the conflict help you better under-stand our contemporary world? If so, how?

2. “Perhaps,” writes Jenkins, “when holy war rhetoric reaches a certain extreme, it discredits itself beyond redemption and becomes its own gravedigger” (p. 369). After reading this book, what truth do you see in this statement?

3. Do you think that holy war rhetoric has entirely van-ished from the Western world, especially from the Christian world? If not, why not? Can you imagine circumstances in which it would reappear?

The Great and Holy War

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