Abstract
Do the imprecatory psalms authorize reprisal attacks against civilian targets? This question was at the heart of a controversy that arose in Britain during July 1917, which brought together the unlikely combination of the German bombing campaign and the Church of England’s process of liturgical reform. When a meeting of the Canterbury Convocation approved the removal of Psalm 58 and several other imprecatory psalms, there was an immediate stir in the Press. This public debate about Convocation’s decision offers a valuable window through which we can discern the ongoing vitality of British biblical culture during the First World War.
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©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The Bible in America and Britain at War
- Making the Bible Safe for Democracy: American Methodists and the First World War
- “The Bible is the Word of God.… What does it Tell us About War?”
- Bishops, Baby-Killers and Broken Teeth: Psalm 58 and the Air War
- “All War is Contrary to the Mind of Christ:” The Bible and the Fellowship of Reconciliation
- The Bible and the British and American Armed Forces in Two World Wars
- “The Merchants of Tarshish, with all the Young Lions Thereof.” The British Empire, Scripture Prophecy, and the War of Armageddon, 1914–1918
- Ecclesiasticus, War Graves, and the Secularization of British Values
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The Bible in America and Britain at War
- Making the Bible Safe for Democracy: American Methodists and the First World War
- “The Bible is the Word of God.… What does it Tell us About War?”
- Bishops, Baby-Killers and Broken Teeth: Psalm 58 and the Air War
- “All War is Contrary to the Mind of Christ:” The Bible and the Fellowship of Reconciliation
- The Bible and the British and American Armed Forces in Two World Wars
- “The Merchants of Tarshish, with all the Young Lions Thereof.” The British Empire, Scripture Prophecy, and the War of Armageddon, 1914–1918
- Ecclesiasticus, War Graves, and the Secularization of British Values