Both Swords and Ploughshares: Interactions of War, Peace, and Religion in America from the War of Independence to the Present
This collection of essays examines interactions of war, peace and religion in the United States, a country where religious faith was, and still is, often deeply felt and widely held, where faith has provided a set of values to uphold with fervor or to transgress in protest, and where religion has been used to legitimize both armed violence and passive resistance. These essays analyze the mythos of America as a place of religious freedom, yet one imbued with a socially-imposed civil religion and underpinned by a heavy presumption of Protestant dominance. With subjects ranging from the War of Independence to the early 21st century, the contributions to this volume focus on a variety of historical and chronological circumstances in order to consider what concrete, tangible outcomes, what artifacts, were produced by the interface of war, peace and religion – the swords and ploughshares of the title.
This volume thus presents a variety of often multifaceted responses that reflect its interdisciplinary scope. Some contributions refer to fine art pieces, including statues, paintings, and murals, and others to works of literature, theology, or public speaking. Some of these interfaces were performed on stage or in film, while yet others were heard on the radio or read in newspapers or journals. Some of the essays gathered here concern individuals working through the meaning of armed conflict in terms of their own, personal faith, while others examine the impact of such conflicts on a larger scale, as with whole faith communities or in the shaping of national or foreign policy.
The first part, Communities, looks at interfaces that served to structure a whole community. The second, Margins, examines instances where the relationship between religion and war and peace has occupied a more marginal space within a faith community. The final section turns this interface Outward, situating it away from American soil or noting how foreign war shaped the spirituality of those returning.
Linda Martz is Associate Professor of English and History at the American University of Paris, and also lectures at the Catholic University of Paris. She researches and publishes on nineteenth and early twentieth century British social and political movements involving women, as well as on aspects of California’s regional religious culture during the same period, with a special interest in Pentecostalism and early Fundamentalism. She has also published several language and civilizations textbooks for the French market.
Ineke Bockting is Professor of American Studies at the Catholic University of Paris, where she is Chair of the Department of English and Director of the research group “Langues, Cultures, Histoire et Education,” which is part of the Unité de Recherche “Religion, Culture et Société” of the Catholic University of Paris. Her publications include works on various aspects of the American South, William Faulkner, ethnic literatures, travel narrative, autobiography, narratology, literary stylistics and pragmatics, and cognitive science and literature.
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