Call for Papers: Conflict, Faith and Conscience in the Modern World

International Network for the Study of War and Religion in the Modern World

Seventh Annual Conference

Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre, Amport House, Hampshire

Wednesday 13 – Friday 15 July 2016 

Call for Papers: Conflict, Faith and Conscience in the Modern World

In the United Kingdom, 2016 sees the dual centenary of the Military Service Act and of the Battle of the Somme. The Military Service Act introduced conscription and recognised the legitimacy of the conscientious objector to combatant service. The British soldiers who participated in the 1916 Battle of the Somme were largely volunteers from the same Christian society who had chosen to fight. This conference explores the spectrum and significance of religious belief and individual conscience in modern wars fought by state and non-state actors alike, bringing together scholars from a range of disciplines to reflect upon the importance and ramifications of faith and individual conscience in wars fought across the modern world. The conference aims to explore the themes of religion, peace-making and resistance to war, the experience and treatment of the religious objector, and the predicaments of people of all faiths who fought or supported armed conflict. As the centenary of the First World War proceeds, proposals focusing on the period 1914-1918 are particularly welcome but those from the entre period c.1700-2000 will also be warmly received. A case may also be made for presenting a paper on an earlier period if it can be shown that it will be of special relevance to the theme of the conference. A selection of the conference papers will be published in the Defence Academy Yearbook 2016.

The conference will be hosted by the staff of the Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre (AFCC) and will be co-ordinated by Canon Professor Michael Snape (Michael Ramsey Professor of Anglican Studies, Durham University), Dr Edward Madigan (Lecturer in Public History, Royal Holloway, University of London) and Dr Emma Hanna (Senior Research Fellow, School of History, University of Kent). Four-hundred word abstracts should be copied, along with a one-page CV, to michael.snape@durham.ac.uk, Edward.Madigan@rhul.ac.uk and E.L.Hanna@kent.ac.uk by Friday 27 May 2016.

The International Network for the Study of War and Religion in the Modern World was established in 2009 to promote greater communication and collaboration among scholars working in the field of war and religion from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. AFCC, Amport House, is a constituent College of the Defence Academy, delivering and fostering research, education and training, and is the home of Faith across Defence.

Supported by Voices of War & Peace and Gateways to the First World War