The War

This chapter takes a look at a sermon delivered by Benjamin Artom on war. Indeed, what distinguishes the sermon is the expression of deep discouragement at the very fact of war. It is not a challenge to belief in God, such as will be seen in the wars of the following century. Rather, the devastation wrought by the opposing armies, with their technologically sophisticated new armaments, represents a challenge to accepted beliefs about civilization and progress. To understand the context of Artom's message, the chapter provides some background on the ‘cult of progress’. This is a theme that Artom would pick up and develop with considerable power. The critique of the cult of progress had been launched in cultural circles through the idealization of a traditional past associated with the Oxford Movement, Young England, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and the Gothic Revival. But there was also a religious critique, and Artom's sermon is a fine articulation of its principles.