War, Peace and the British Free Churches, 1914-1945

Description

Surveying experience across the Free Churches, this book considers the involvement of British Christians in the public debates about the justification and conduct of war and the pursuit of peace in the first half of the 20th century.

It explores church involvement with issues like Great War conscientious objectors, World War One rhetoric, the commemoration of war, and the arms trade of the mid-20th century. War, Peace and the British Free Churches in the Early Twentieth Century shines a light on the significance of key individuals, such as Walter Mursell, Padre Ernest Lodge Watson and Henry Carter, and gives balanced coverage to the public participation of Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists and more.

The book examines the Free Church interactions with the League of Nations and its engagements with ideological discussions around Liberalism and Pacifism in the period. Indeed the era addressed by the volume is widely acknowledged as a time in which the Free Churches enjoyed a height in popular adherence across much of British society, rivalling and often eclipsing the ‘Establishment’; the book therefore provides a vital understanding of a previously neglected and yet critical dimension of Britain’s relationship with peace and conflict in the 20th century.

Andrew Chandler is Professor of Modern History at the University of Chichester. The book was launched at a joint history society event at United Reformed Church House in January 2026. Hardcover, published by Bloomsbury Academic, 300 pages, ISBN: 978-1350431294.