The Faith of the American Soldier PDF Download

Author: Stephen Mansfield
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101562811
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
What goes through the mind of an American warrior spiritually and religiously when facing the enemy? Treading where few books have gone, The Faith of the American Soldier examines the religious and spiritual issues in America's wars, and then considers what is lost to our military through a secular approach to battle. Special attention is paid to the current war in Iraq, where Mansfield reaches surprising conclusions about the need for structured faith on the battlefield-and how its absence contributes to catastrophes like those at Abu Ghraib prison.

Author: Jonathan H. Ebel
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691162182
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
Faith in the Fight tells a story of religion, soldiering, suffering, and death in the Great War. Recovering the thoughts and experiences of American troops, nurses, and aid workers through their letters, diaries, and memoirs, Jonathan Ebel describes how religion--primarily Christianity--encouraged these young men and women to fight and die, sustained them through war's chaos, and shaped their responses to the war's aftermath. The book reveals the surprising frequency with which Americans who fought viewed the war as a religious challenge that could lead to individual and national redemption. Believing in a "Christianity of the sword," these Americans responded to the war by reasserting their religious faith and proclaiming America God-chosen and righteous in its mission. And while the war sometimes challenged these beliefs, it did not fundamentally alter them. Revising the conventional view that the war was universally disillusioning, Faith in the Fight argues that the war in fact strengthened the religious beliefs of the Americans who fought, and that it helped spark a religiously charged revival of many prewar orthodoxies during a postwar period marked by race riots, labor wars, communist witch hunts, and gender struggles. For many Americans, Ebel argues, the postwar period was actually one of "reillusionment." Demonstrating the deep connections between Christianity and Americans' experience of the First World War, Faith in the Fight encourages us to examine the religious dimensions of America's wars, past and present, and to work toward a deeper understanding of religion and violence in American history.

Author: Jonathan H. Ebel
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300176708
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Introduction -- Incarnating American civil religion -- Symbols known, soldiers unknown -- In honored glory, known but to God -- Saint Francis the Fallen -- The Vietnam War as a christological crisis -- Safety, soldier, scapegoat, savior -- Conclusion : of flesh, words, and wars

Author: Ellwood C. Nance
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781436706674
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Author: Roger Benimoff
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307408825
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
“Running away from God doesn’t work. I had tried.” —Roger Benimoff As he left for his second tour of duty as an Army chaplain in Iraq, Roger Benimoff noted in his journal: I am excited and I am scared. I am on fire for God...He is my hope, strength, and focus. But not long after returning to Iraq, the burdens of his job–the memorial services for soldiers killed in action, the therapy sessions after contact with the enemy, the perilous excursions “outside the wire” while under enemy fire–began to overwhelm him. Amid the dust, heat, and blood of Iraq, Benimoff felt the pillar of strength he’d always relied on to hold him up–his faith in God–begin to crumble. Unable to make sense of the senseless, Benimoff turned to his journal. What did it mean to believe in a God who would allow the utter horror and injustice of war? Did He want these brave young men and women to die? In his darkest moment, Benimoff wrote: Why am I so angry? I do not want anything to do with God. I am sick of religion. It is a crutch for the weak. Benimoff’s spiritual crisis heightened upon his return home to Fort Carson, Colorado. He withdrew emotionally from wife and sons, creating tensions that threatened to shatter the family. He was assigned to work at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he counseled returning soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder–until he was diagnosed himself with PTSD. Finding himself in the role of patient rather than caregiver, connecting as an equal with his fellow sufferers, and revisiting scriptural readings that once again rang with meaning and truth, he began his most decisive battle: for the love of his family and for the chance to once again open his heart to the healing grace of God. Intimate and powerful, drawing on Benimoff’s and his wife’s journals, Faith Under Fire chronicles a spiritual struggle through war, loss, and the hard process of learning to believe again.

Author: George Mills
Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 1098034929
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
The Footprints of an American Soldier contains some fiction and nonfiction stories. The stories are that of Clay Mills, who finds himself to be on this journey looking for his soul mate. He started his journey looking for a new soul mate about three years ago after going through a divorce, and while he tries to makes his way through this desert in which he has found himself, he tells short stories about the time he spent with his hometown unit. He hopes that you find his stories to be entertaining. May God bless one and all who read this book.

Author: G. Kurt Piehler
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496229991
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 531

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Book Description
A Religious History of the American GI in World War II breaks new ground by recounting the armed forces' unprecedented efforts to meet the spiritual needs of the fifteen million men and women who served in World War II. For President Franklin D. Roosevelt and many GIs, religion remained a core American value that fortified their resolve in the fight against Axis tyranny. While combatants turned to fellow comrades for support, even more were sustained by prayer. GIs flocked to services, and when they mourned comrades lost in battle, chaplains offered solace and underscored the righteousness of their cause. This study is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the social history of the American GI during World War II. Drawing on an extensive range of letters, diaries, oral histories, and memoirs, G. Kurt Piehler challenges the conventional wisdom that portrays the American GI as a nonideological warrior. American GIs echoed the views of FDR, who saw a Nazi victory as a threat to religious freedom and recognized the antisemitic character of the regime. Official policies promoted a civil religion that stressed equality between Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, and Judaism. Many chaplains embraced this tri-faith vision and strived to meet the spiritual needs of all servicepeople regardless of their own denomination. While examples of bigotry, sectarianism, and intolerance remained, the armed forces fostered the free exercise of religion that promoted a respect for the plurality of American religious life among GIs.

Author: Stephen Mansfield
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781404103818
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Together through word and song, Stephen Mansfield, with Toby Keith and Chuck Cannon, pay tribute to the multitudes so deserving of recognition. Categorized with themes like: Courage, Honor, Faith, Sacrifice, and Prayer, each has related stories that will inspire any heart.

Author: John W. Brinsfield
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 0811744450
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
For both Union and Confederate soldiers, religion was the greatest sustainer of morale in the Civil War, and faith was a refuge in a great time of need. Guarding and guiding the spiritual well-being of the fighters, army chaplains were a voice of hope and reason in an otherwise chaotic military existence. Here for the first time, encompassing the depth and breadth of their dedication and sacrifice, is their fascinating and uplifting story.

Author: General Jerry Boykin
Publisher: FaithWords
ISBN: 0446537586
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
In 1978, Jerry Boykin joined what would become the world's premier Special Operations unit, Delta Force. The only promise: "A medal and a body bag." What followed was a .50 caliber round in the chest and a life spent with America's elite forces bringing down warlords and war criminals, despots, and dictators. In Colombia, his task force hunted the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar. In Panama, he helped capture the brutal dictator Manuel Noriega, liberating a nation. From Vietnam to Iran to Mogadishu, Lt. General Jerry Boykin's life reads like an action-adventure novel. Boykin's powerful story will keep you riveted as he reveals how his military duty worked in tandem with his faith to bring him through the bloody storms of foreign battle-and through the political firestorm that ambushed him in his own country.