The role of military chaplains has changed over the past decade as Western militaries have deployed to highly religious environments such as East Africa, Afghanistan, and Iraq. U.S. military chaplains, who are by definition non-combatants, have been called upon by their war-fighting commanders to take on new roles beyond providing religious services to the troops. Chaplains are now also required to engage the local citizenry and provide their commanders with assessments of the religious and cultural landscape outside the base and reach out to local civilian clerics in hostile territory in pursuit of peace and understanding. In this edited volume, practitioners and scholars chronicle the changes that have happened in the field in the twenty-first century. Using concrete examples, this volume takes a critical look at the rapidly changing role of the military chaplain, and raises issues critical to U.S. foreign and national security policy and diplomacy.

Based on extensive in-depth interviews with more than thirty active duty chaplains regarding their successes, failures and conflicts, the book is about the way military chaplains handle religious diversity among the enlisted they serve and within their own corps.

This comprehensive introduction to the ministry of chaplaincy brings together three authors who oversee three of the leading chaplaincy programs in the United States. Written from an evangelical perspective, the book covers the foundations of chaplaincy and surveys specific types of chaplaincy work. In the first half of the book, the authors delve into the history of chaplaincy work as well as its biblical, theological, and philosophical foundations. They introduce students to important topics such as endorsement, placement, and the constitutional and legal parameters of such work. They also consider the person of the chaplain and the understanding of chaplaincy as Christian ministry. In the second half of the book, the authors bring together expert contributors to survey ten specific contexts for chaplaincy work, such as education, healthcare, the military, corporations, prisons, public safety, and sports, and they explore the future of chaplaincy. This book will be an invaluable resource for students of chaplaincy.

How does religion shape the modern battlefield? Ron E. Hassner proposes that religion acts as a force multiplier, both enabling and constraining military operations. This is true not only for religiously radicalized fighters but also for professional soldiers. In the last century, religion has influenced modern militaries in the timing of attacks, the selection of targets for assault, the zeal with which units execute their mission, and the ability of individual soldiers to face the challenge of war. Religious ideas have not provided the reasons why conventional militaries fight, but religious practices have influenced their ability to do so effectively. In Religion on the Battlefield, Hassner focuses on the everyday practice of religion in a military context: the prayers, rituals, fasts, and feasts of the religious practitioners who make up the bulk of the adversaries, bystanders, and observers during armed conflicts. To show that religious practices have influenced battlefield decision making, Hassner draws most of his examples from major wars involving Western militaries. They include British soldiers in the trenches of World War I, U.S. pilots in World War II, and U.S. Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hassner shows that even modern, rational, and bureaucratized military organizations have taken—and must take—religious practice into account in the conduct of war.

Nearly 1.9 million U.S. troops have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq since October 2001. Many service members and veterans face serious challenges in readjusting to normal life after returning home. This initial book presents findings on the most critical challenges, and lays out the blueprint for the second phase of the study to determine how best to meet the needs of returning troops and their families.

Uncommon Valor from Dwight Jon Zimmerman and John D. Gresham presents a fascinating look at six of our bravest soldiers and the highest military decoration awarded in this country. Since the Vietnam War ended in 1973, the Medal of Honor, our nation's highest award for valor, has been presented to only eight men for their actions "above and beyond the call of duty." Six of the eight were young men who had fought in the current war in Iraq, Afghanistan, or both. All of these medals were awarded posthumously, as all had made the choice to give their lives so that their comrades might live. Uncommon Valor answers the searing question of who these six young soldiers were, and dramatically details how they found themselves in life-or-death situations, and why they responded as they did. For the first time, this book also provides a comprehensive history of the Medal of Honor itself—one marred by controversies, scandals, and theft. Using an extraordinary range of sources, including interviews with family members and friends, teammates and superiors in the military, personal letters, blogs posted within hours of events, personal and official videos and newly declassified documents, Uncommon Valor is a compelling and important work that recounts incredible acts of heroism and lays bare the ultimate sacrifice of our bravest soldiers.

This pioneering handbook proposes an approach to pluralism that is relational, principled, and non-relativistic, going beyond banal calls for mere "tolerance." The growing religious diversity within societies around the world presents both challenges and opportunities. A degree of competition between deeply held religious/worldview perspectives is natural and inevitable, yet at the same time the world urgently needs engagement and partnership across lines of difference. None of the world’s most pressing problems can be solved by any single actor, and as such it is not a question of if but when you partner with an individual or institution that does not think, act, or believe as you do. The authors argue that religious literacy—defined as a dynamic combination of competencies and skills, continuously refined through real-world cross-cultural engagement—is vital to building societies and states of neighborly solidarity and civic fairness. Through examination, reflection, and case studies across multiple faith traditions and professional fields, this handbook equips scholars and students, as well as policymakers and practitioners, to assess, analyze, and act collaboratively in a world of deep diversity. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This three-volume reference provides a complete guide for readers investigating the crucial interplay between war and religion from ancient times until today, enabling a deeper understanding of the role of religious wars across cultures. Containing some 500 entries covering the interaction between war and religion from ancient times, the three-volume War and Religion: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict provides students with an invaluable reference source for examining two of the most important phenomena impacting society today. This all-inclusive reference work will serve readers researching specific religious traditions, historical eras, wars, battles, or influential individuals across all time periods. The A–Z entries document ancient events and movements such as the First Crusade that began at the end of the 10th century as well as modern-day developments like ISIS and Al Qaeda. Subtopics throughout the encyclopedia include religious and military leaders or other key people, ideas, and weapons, and comprehensive examinations of each of the major religious traditions' views on war and violence are presented. The work also includes dozens of primary source documents—each introduced by a headnote—that enable readers to go directly to the source of information and better grasp its historical significance. The in-depth content of this set benefits high school and college students as well as scholars and general readers.

Men of God, Men of War tells the stories of chaplains who have served in America’s wars. In his exploration of military chaplaincy, author Robert Doyle poses questions about their brand of service to the United States. He examines the complexities of the chaplains’ vocation—the types of services they performed, the roles they assumed in combat and as prisoners of war, and how they interacted with the military personnel they served and supported. Doyle explores the high price many paid for their commitment to their unique type of service. Doyle illuminates the histories of chaplains who did their duty selflessly to God, to their country, to the soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen with whom they found themselves in very dire circumstances over the past three hundred years. Chaplains throughout American history have served bravely and selflessly at home and in the field, both under fire and “behind the wire.” Chaplains served as sources of motivation, inspiration, and peace for military personnel in times of hardship, especially in captivity. Doyle illustrates that while they are now treated as non-combatants, chaplains’ vital role as leaders cannot be underestimated or understated. Men of God, Men of War examines how chaplains performed under fire in hostile environments, beginning with the Revolutionary War through the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. The chaplains of the Revolution were patriots first, soldiers second, and men of God third. From the Civil War to modern times, these men gave hope to the hopeless, absolution to those soldiers who stood before their Maker before battles, and faith in themselves and their comrades so necessary for men in combat. Doyle’s research shows that military chaplains have always remained necessary to men at war, even in a modern secular military.

Serving in the military is often a disruptive event in the lives of those who join, precipitating a reassessment of the service member’s ethical sensibilities or, tragically, resulting in lasting moral injury and trauma. The military experience compels them to navigate multiple identities, from citizen to warrior and back. Their religious identity, sometimes rooted in a civilian religious community, can be altered by military participation. Through a series of inductive, in-depth qualitative interviews, Suitt explores how varied religious resources and potentially traumatic events affect the lives of post-9/11 veterans who once or currently identified as Christian. Adding to existing research on moral injury, it traces how military chaplains, ethics education, just war theory rhetoric, and formal religious practice supplied by the military alter the course of service members’ moral lives. These narrative trajectories reveal how veterans use Christian faith or other systems of meaning-making to understand war and their identities as service members and veterans.