Serving Two Masters: The Development of American Military Chaplaincy, 1860-1920Chaplain Richard M. Budd has made a welcome, concise, well written and researched contribution to an overlooked chapter in chaplain history. Anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of how the professional and fully institutionalized chaplaincy of today's military came about would do well by consulting Budd's book." --Bradley L. Carter, On Point. Military chaplains have a long and distinguished tradition in the United States, but historians have typically ignored their vital role in ministering to the needs of soldiers and sailors. Richard M. Budd corrects this omission with a thoughtful history of the chaplains who sought to create a viable institutional structure for themselves within the U.S. Army and Navy that would best enable them to minister to the fighting men. Despite the chaplaincy's long history of accompanying American armies into battle, there has never been consensus on its role within the military, among the churches, or even among chaplains themselves. Each of these constituencies has had its own vision for chaplains, and these ideas have evolved with changing social conditions and military growth. Moreover, chaplains, acting as members of one profession operating within the specific environment of another, raised questions of whether they could or should integrate themselves into the military. In effect they had to learn to serve two institutional masters, the church and the government, simultaneously. Budd provides a history of the struggle of chaplains to professionalize their ranks and to obtain a significant measure of autonomy within the military's bureaucratic structure--always with the ultimate goal of more efficiently bringing their spiritual message to the troops. Richard M. Budd is a Lutheran pastor in Leeds, North Dakota, and a chaplain in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He has a Ph.D. in military history from Ohio State University, and his work has appeared in Ohio History, The Navy Chaplain, and Trinity Seminary Review. |
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acting chaplains adjutant agencies American military chaplaincy appointed Army and Navy army chaplains army's autonomy Brent Papers Bureau of Navigation bureaucratic Cassard chaplain candidates chaplain conferences chaplain corps chaplain organization chaplain school chaplains continued Charles H chief of chaplains Christian Commission Civil War chaplains civilian clergy clergymen collateral duties commanders Committee on Army Confederate chaplains Congress denominational efforts Federal Council File Frazier Infantry insignia issues Josephus Daniels legislation lieutenant line officers lobbying matter Methodist ministers ministry moral naval Nave's navy chaplains Navy Department numbers numbers of chaplains Orville Nave Pershing post chaplains profession professional promotion reform regimental chaplains regular army regulations religion religious responsibilities role Roman Catholic Roman Catholic Church Secretary of War served soldiers spiritual Staff Chaplains supervisory chaplain surgeons U.S. Army U.S. Navy uniform Union chaplains United States Army War Department Washington DC Washington Navy Yard William wrote YMCA