Professor Marc Arkin’s review of the book Enlisting Faith by Ronit Y. Stahl was published in the Wall Street Journal.
In “Enlisting Faith,” a history of the modern chaplaincy, Ronit Stahl —a fellow in ethics and policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school—contends that the military constructed a new civic religious ideal, a non-denominational “moral monotheism” that, in turn, reshaped the wider civilian culture. In World War I, this ideal of “religious comity” was epitomized by a Baptist chaplain who administered the Lord’s Supper at a Catholic altar after preaching at a Jewish service. It continues, Ms. Stahl says, in the many “interfaith” services in which Christian chaplains assiduously avoid the mention of Jesus.