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Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War
This book explores the impact of violence on the religious beliefs
of front soldiers and civilians in Germany during the First World
War. The central argument is that religion was the main prism
through which men and women in the Great War articulated and
processed trauma. Inspired by trauma studies, the history of
emotions, and the social and cultural history of religion, this
book moves away from the history of clerical authorities and
institutions at war and instead focuses on the history of religion
and war 'from below.' Jason Crouthamel provides a fascinating
exploration into the language and belief systems used by ordinary
people to explain the inexplicable. From Judeo-Christian traditions
to popular beliefs and 'superstitions,' German soldiers and
civilians depended on a malleable psychological toolbox that
included a hybrid of ideas stitched together using prewar concepts
mixed with images or experiences derived from the surreal
environment of modern combat. Perhaps most interestingly, studying
the front experience exposes not only lived religion, but also how
religious beliefs are invented. Front soldiers in particular
constructed new, subjective spiritual and religious concepts based
on encounters with industrialized weapons, the sacred experience of
comradeship, and immersion in mass death, which profoundly altered
their sense of self and the supernatural. More than just a coping
mechanism, religious language and beliefs enabled victims, and
perpetrators, of violence to narrate concepts of psychological
renewal and rebirth. In the wake of defeat and revolution,
religious concepts shaped by the war experience also became a
cornerstone of visions for radical political movements, including
the National Socialists, to transform a shattered and embittered
German nation. Making use of letters between soldiers and
civilians, diaries, memoirs and front newspapers, Trauma, Religion
and Spirituality in Germany during the First World War offers a
unique glimpse into the belief systems of men and women at a
turning point in European history.
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