Philip Jenkins, *The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade* (HarperOne, 2014)
Armageddon (Revelation 16), Ezekiel 38–39 (Gog & Magog), Isaiah 53
1914–1918 (First World War)
Collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate, Balfour Declaration (1917), Rise of the Global South Church
Table of contents
- I. Scope: The Great and Holy War Thesis
- II. Chronological Spine (1914–1920)
- III. Apocalyptic Exegesis: Armageddon and Ezekiel 38
- IV. Mobilizing Scripture: British, German, and Russian Pulpits
- V. The Capture of Jerusalem & Messianic Fulfillment (1917)
- VI. The Long Aftermath: The Rise of Global South Christianity
- VII. Primary Sources & Selected Bibliography
Related hub notes
I. Scope: The Great and Holy War Thesis
In his groundbreaking 2014 study The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade, distinguished historian Philip Jenkins challenged the prevailing secular historiography of the First World War [1]. While conventional histories treat 1914–1918 as an exercise in imperial rivalry, industrial slaughter, and political disillusionment, Jenkins established that the conflict was conceived, mobilized, and experienced by contemporaries as a cosmic Holy War.
Clergy, statesmen, and soldiers across all belligerent nations deployed the biblical imagery of Armageddon, the Apocalypse of St John, and the suffering servant of Isaiah to frame the titanic slaughter as an eschatological struggle between Christ and Antichrist (see Section III: Apocalyptic Exegesis) [2].
II. Chronological Spine (1914–1920)
| Year | Military Milestone | Religious & Biblical Dimension |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 1914 | Outbreak of World War I | Kaiser Wilhelm II invokes Martin Luther's *Ein feste Burg*; British pulpits declare a crusade against Prussian 'pagan militarism'. |
| Nov 1914 | Ottoman Empire enters the war | Sultan-Caliph Mehmed V declares global Jihad against the Entente powers. |
| 1915 | Gallipoli & Armenian Genocide | Destruction of ancient Christian communities in Anatolia; Western pulpits frame conflict as the defense of historic Eastern Christendom. |
| Dec 1917 | General Allenby enters Jerusalem | British press hails Allenby as a 'modern Crusader' fulfilling biblical prophecy; Balfour Declaration endorses Jewish national home in Palestine. |
| 1919–1920 | Treaty of Versailles & Collapse of Empires | Dissolution of the Ottoman, Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and German empires sets the stage for the modern Middle East and the explosive rise of the Christian Global South. |
↑ Jump to: Scope | Apocalyptic Exegesis | Jerusalem 1917 | Bibliography
III. Apocalyptic Exegesis: Armageddon and Ezekiel 38
The unprecedented carnage of trench warfare spurred a massive revival of premillennial and apocalyptic biblical hermeneutics across Europe and North America [1]:
Popular commentators in Britain and America identified Tsarist Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany with the apocalyptic armies of Gog from the north destined to perish upon the mountains of Israel.
When General Allenby fought the Battle of Megiddo in Palestine (September 1918), sermons across the English-speaking world declared that the literal biblical Armageddon was unfolding before their eyes.
IV. Mobilizing Scripture: British, German, and Russian Pulpits
During the war years, national churches on all sides functioned as primary mobilization engines, translating government war aims into divine biblical imperatives [2]:
- Germany: Protestant pastors celebrated Germany as the bastion of the Reformation, comparing the Kaiser's army to the host of Gideon fighting against degenerate British commercialism and French atheism.
- Great Britain: The Bishop of London, Arthur Winnington-Ingram, preached that the war was a great crusade to save the freedom of the world and destroy the 'servants of the devil'.
- Russia: The Russian Orthodox Church framed the conflict as the sacred liberation of Constantinople (the Second Rome) and the defense of Slavic Orthodox brethren.
V. The Capture of Jerusalem & Messianic Fulfillment (1917)
On 9 December 1917, British forces under General Sir Edmund Allenby captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks, ending four centuries of Ottoman rule. In a gesture of humble reverence, Allenby entered the Jaffa Gate on foot rather than on horseback [1].
The event ignited feverish biblical commentary across Judaism and Christianity. Preachers cited Isaiah 31:5 ("As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem") and Daniel 12, interpreting the British capture and the contemporaneous Balfour Declaration as the direct fulfillment of biblical prophecy paving the way for the restoration of Israel.
VI. The Long Aftermath: The Rise of Global South Christianity
Jenkins concludes that the most enduring legacy of World War I was not the secularization of Western Europe, but the demographic transformation of global religion [3]. The destruction of European imperial legitimacy accelerated the indigenization of Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Asia, shifting the demographic center of global Christianity permanently from the North Atlantic to the Global South.
VII. Primary Sources & Selected Bibliography
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