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

圣经是第一次世界大战文化景观中不可回避的一部分。这本书可能是战争期间最受欢迎的一本书。它为士兵和平民提供了鼓舞和安慰。传教士和政客用它来灌输民族自豪感和战斗精神，而良心上的反对者则用它来捍卫和平主义。它提供的概念和隐喻帮助男性和女性理解他们的日常经历。它的话被虔诚地希望引用在墓碑和战争纪念碑上，并被愤怒的诗人重写。基督徒(新教徒、天主教和东正教)和犹太人用每种语言和冲突各方阅读这本书。尽管受到19世纪科学进步和圣经批评的挑战，圣经仍然是西方文化的中心。然而，在我们理解一战及其遗产方面，圣经在某种程度上是一个盲点。战争在整个西方世界引发了一场信仰危机，这是一件司空见惯的事情。至少在英国，这场战争经常被视为浪费和徒劳的缩影，是人们对传统宗教价值观彻底醒悟的根源。然而，历史学家越来越认识到，无论是在战壕中还是在后方，宗教信仰仍然是身份认同、信念和士气的根本来源。圣经对这一信仰的核心地位是显而易见的，这一点从每年印刷和分发的数百万本圣经(特别是分发给士兵)、每周数以千计的圣经布道以及关于圣经主题的流行和学术出版物的持续活力中可见一斑。因此，《圣经》和《圣经》的解释提供了一个重要的视角来审视处于战争中的世界的宗教和文化经历，特别是因为它是跨越不同宗教传统、制度和国家背景的一个基本的共同点。我们的项目将集中在两个主要问题上：《圣经》如何塑造和影响人们对第一次世界大战的经历，以及这场战争是如何影响它的阅读和解释的？为了解决这些问题，我们将设立三个研讨会，讨论战时文化中的圣经。这些将集中在圣经学者的贡献和战争期间学术的发展，犹太和基督教士兵在前线使用圣经，圣经在布道和流行虔诚中的作用，以及圣经在战争记忆和遗产中的地位。我们将同时关注盟国和中央强国，以便比较不同的国家和宗教背景。我们将包括来自不同学科(圣经研究、神学和宗教研究、历史、文学研究、犹太研究)以及主要信仰组织和文化机构的参与者。我们的目标是支持跨学科边界的思想交流，并通过将冲突双方国家的学者聚集在一起，巩固和扩大英国与世界其他地区之间的研究联系。该项目的国际和教派间/宗教间方面尤其重要，因为第一次世界大战的历史往往被划分为不同的“国家故事”。《圣经》对各方来说都是共同的，但使用方式往往截然不同，因此是一个理想的比较点。工作坊将为圣经和战争的新研究定下议程，并致力于建立一个新的研究圣经和武装冲突的国际中心。这项计划也将促进公众对圣经在第一次世界大战经验和遗产中的地位的了解。我们将与圣经协会合作制作特别杂志版，在2015年阵亡将士纪念日和2016年索姆河战役周年纪念日为宗教从业者组织研讨会，并针对英国和德国更广泛的公众举办公开讲座和演讲。

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.