Ecclesiasticus, War Graves, and the Secularization of British Values
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Alana M. Vincent
Abstract
This article reads the design of the British Imperial War Graves cemeteries in the context of the religious pluralism of the late Empire. Reviewing the deliberations of the design committee and parliamentary debates on the design of the cemeteries, it notes that the Christian character of the cemeteries was relatively muted, a design decision which caused no small amount of public and political controversy, but which permitted the cemeteries to present an image of a unified Empire. The paper argues that the choice of quotations specifically from the apocrypha was an important and deliberate aspect of this presentational strategy.
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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
