On Suffering and Consolation in Times of War

On Suffering and Consolation in Times of War J.-Guy Lalande Akçam, Taner – The Young Turks’ Crime Against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. Pp. 483. Bobič, Pavlina – War and Faith: The Catholic Church in Slovenia, 1914-1918 Leiden: Brill, 2012. Pp. 261. Ebel, Jonathan H. – Faith in the Fight: Religion and the American Soldier in the Great War. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010. Pp. 253. Glassford, Sarah and Amy Shaw, (eds.) – A Sisterhood of Suffering and Service: Women and Girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the First World War. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012. Pp. 345. Jones, Heather – Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War: Britain, France and Germany, 1914-1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Pp. 451. Kévorkian, Raymond – The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011. Pp. 1029. Panayi, Panikos – Prisoners of Britain: German Civilian and Combatant Internees during the First World War. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012. Pp. 342. Proctor, Tammy M. – Civilians in a World at War, 1914-1918. New York: New York University Press, 2010. Pp. 363. Shevin-Coetzee, Marilyn and Frans Coetzee, (eds.) – Empires, Soldiers, and Citizens: A World War I Sourcebook. Malden, MA.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. Pp. 380. Suny, Ronald Grigor, Fatma Müge Güçek and Norman M. Naimark (eds.) – A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Pp. 34. It is safe to say that, from time immemorial, war and suffering have been associated with one another. Such a connection was particularly evident during World War [End Page 788] One, the defining conflict of the twentieth century, which unleashed a paroxysm of violence never seen before, both overseas and within Europe. The stories of civilians in wartime, prisoners of war, and the Armenian genocide of 1915-1916—a tragedy that cost the lives of at least 1 million people—illustrate the themes of grief, violence, and agony. Since war also carries the possibility of death, secular and ecclesiastical authorities have long perceived the crucial importance of providing combatants with at least one valid reason why they should risk, and possibly lose, their lives. The Athenian leader Pericles, for example, understood that necessity when he delivered his famous funeral oration, shortly after the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. The need for such reassuring words did not disappear over the many centuries, since that epic—and fateful—confrontation between Athens and Sparta. My second theme, therefore, will be an attempt to illustrate how religion, rather than a certain nationalist rhetoric that, in the age of the nation-state, was inevitably part of the picture, tried to give meaning to all that suffering. Even though World War I was not fought over religion, religious ideas still motivated individual soldiers. Historians intent on exploring religious faith in times of war, however, face a considerable challenge, because faith is something deeply personal and subject to change. Nevertheless, by using as a premise the notion that religion and war are essentially about life and death, this essay will show how a certain theological discourse emphasized the comforting thought that soldiers’ participation in such a murderous carnage contributed to their spiritual growth and, in case of the ultimate sacrifice, to their eternal salvation. There is a plethora of good textbooks on World War I (or the Great War, as it was called before September 1939), but there are very few, like Empires, Soldiers, and Citizens ..., that introduce readers to the war of 1914-1918 in Europe, Africa, and Asia (the Americas have been left out—an inexplicable oversight, since the USA decided the issue of the war) through the use of mostly primary sources. The great merit of such an approach is to give the reader a sense of immediacy, a taste of the flavour—bitter as it was—of the times. This sourcebook includes eight thematic chapters that explore different aspects of the war within a chronological framework: The Mood of 1914; War on the Western Front; War to the East and South; Combat in the Machine

Ancient history · Consolation · Empire · Faith · Genocide · Theology · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · Classics · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · History · Philosophy · Religious studies · Religious Studies

• War Is Fearful

  Open Access•E Mensah, Ngozika Anthonia Obi-Ani et al.•Genealogy•2025

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