Baptists and War

A series of essays discussing the ways in which Baptist communities in different countries and at different times have responded to the call to war.

While Baptists through the years have been certain that war is hell, they have not always been able to agree on how to respond to it. This book traces much of this troubled relationship from the days of Baptist origins with close ties to pacifist Anabaptists to the responses of Baptists in America to the Vietnam War. Essays also include discussions of the English Baptist Andrew Fuller's response to the threat of Napoleon, how Baptists in America dealt with the War of 1812, the support of Canadian Baptists for Britain's war in Sudan and Abyssinia in the 1880s, the decisive effect of the First World War on Canada's T.T. Shields, the response of Australian Baptists to the Second World War, and how Russian Baptists dealt with the Cold War. These chapters provide important analyses of Baptist reactions to various manifestations of one of society's most intractable problems.

Gordon L. Heath is Associate Professor of Christian History at McMaster Divinity College, the Director of the Canadian Baptist Archives, and Centenary Chair in World Christianity. His publications include 'A War with a Silver Lining: Canadian Protestant Churches and the South African War, 1899–1902' (2009) and, as editor, 'Canadian Churches and the First World War' (The Lutterworth Press, 2014).

Michael A. G. Haykin is Professor of Church History at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville. He is the author of a number of books dealing with Patristic and Baptist studies.