Book review, Under two flags

BOOK REVIEW UNDER TWO FLAGS

Reviewed by Garth R. Hentzschel

Kingsley Sampson, (ed.) with Harold Hill, Phil Lascelles, and Garry Mellsop, Under two flags. The New Zealand Salvation Army’s response to the First World War, (Wellington, New Zealand: Flag Publications, The Salvation Army, New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa Territory, & The Salvation Army Heritage Centre & Archives, 2018), 388 pp., ISBN. 978 0 473 45725 9.1

Cover of Under two flags

The collective approach and depth of research could see Under two flags become a template for future publications of regional Salvation Army history. The book was a collection of chapters, each written by different authors who investigated a topic connecting The Salvation Army in New Zealand with the context of World War One. The chapters were generally ordered to lead the reader from the march to war, through the Army’s ministry to the troops and the home front, concluding with the war’s lasting impact on The Salvation Army. The authors are well known for their work in Salvation Army or war history. The contributors included: Major Dr. Harold Hill, author of several history books on The Salvation Army and contributor to Salvation Army theological and historical journals; Major Garry Mellsop, former Territorial Archivist at the New Zealand Heritage Centre & Archives and currently serving on the management committee for the Centre; Phill Lascelles, an award-winning professional historian who worked with Auckland War Memorial Museum, Pou Maunahara Memorial Discovery Centre, and the Australian War Memorial, and; Major Kingsley Sampson, with qualifications in teaching and history as well as publishing experience in Salvation Army history. Part one of Under two flags set the scene for the international conflict, introduced Salvationists who were to take part in the war, and investigated the early battles of World War One. The first chapters in this part not only noted the Salvationists who enlisted but also gave some evaluation of sources from which information was derived. There was a clear discussion on the difficulties

Reference citation of this review: Garth R. Hentzschel, “Book review, Under two flags”, The Australasian journal of Salvation Army history, 6, 1, 2021, 86 – 88.

1 At the time of publication of the AJSAH, the book was available from Salvationist Resources New Zealand at https://shop.sarmy.net.nz/product?openform&pid=SBUS-BAKVBE.

Salvationists faced in the process of attesting faith in the signing up process. Statistical and other information was outlined including the age, marital status, occupation, and town of origin of Salvationists who enlisted. The chapter, “Salvation Army Officers in the Ranks”, investigated Salvation Army officers who resigned their commissions with The Salvation Army to enlist in the military. From the statistical and introductory chapters, the first part then moved to the training and first battles of the conflict. The “Opening Salvos of the War” followed the enlisted Salvationists into training in New Zealand, their first engagement in Samoa, training in Egypt, and the first days at Gallipoli. From the battle at Gallipoli, “The Western Front” introduced Salvationists’ personal experience in now notorious European battlefields including the Somme, Ypres and the Hindenburg Line. The research to identify enlisted Salvationists is of great importance to family and organisational history. The number and detail of service personnel is testament to the hours of investigation needed to extrapolate the information from various sources. Part two of the book included chapters on the work The Salvation Army conducted during the international conflict. First readers were introduced to Salvation Army ‘Red Shield Huts’, institutes, soldier’s clubs and other practical support given to the military. A great strength of the book is that it did not neglect The Salvation Army’s ministry to the ‘Home Front’ . The chapter, “Fallen Soldiers’ Orphans Have Preference” outlined how Salvation Army leadership aimed to support the children of fallen soldiers and discussed six different homes. Of note are the chapters on Salvation Army sections including the Home League and Salvation Army Brass Bands. The book outlined the Home Leagues’ work with comforts for troops while the discussion on Brass Bands showed how Salvationist bandsmen engaged with the military when they enlisted. Although the New Zealand Territory did not supply ambulances on their own account, the story was told about how New Zealanders raised funds for Salvation Army ambulances and the work carried on by this unit. Other fundraising activities of The Salvation Army were given a separate chapter; including the ‘Red Jersey Appeal’, ‘Harvest Festival’ and ‘Self-Denial’, which showed the increased levels of trust the general public and military personnel had for the work of The Salvation Army. The chapter, “Comrades in Arms” investigated how The Salvation Army through its publication, The war cry, represented Germany. The chapter did not include information on the other Central Powers, this could have been because The Salvation Army was not operating in the Austria-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria or the Ottoman Empire and therefore were not discussed in the publication. Chapter 13, “The Salvation Army and the 1918 Influenza Epidemic” and a section in chapter seven, “Post-War Support” seem somewhat out of place. Chapter 13 investigated Salvation Army properties that were opened as Emergency Hospitals, as well as Salvationists who succumbed to the epidemic. Not strictly part of World War One, the epidemic is often included as an epilogue to the war or forgotten all together, although the war most likely attributed to the dramatic impact of the influenza. It is of importance that such a chapter was included, however it may have been better positioned in ‘Part four’ of the book that dealt with the aftermath and impact of the war. Similarly, the section in chapter seven, while linked to other parts of the chapter, could easily have been relocated to Part four. Part three covered The Salvation Army chaplains who served with the military forces. The part commenced with an introductory chapter followed by chapters on Alfred Greene, Edward Garner, Charles Walls, John Bladin, Walter Winton, and Samuel Green. Again, these chapters showed a depth of research. These chapters also followed the changing roles and ministries of the individuals after the war. The final section of Under two flags, Part four looked at the aftermath and impact of the war. However, some of these elements also appeared in earlier chapters of the book, for example although

this section carried information on Salvation Army brass bands, this topic was also included earlier. There were also snippets of information throughout the entire book that covered the lives of Salvationists who served in the military and survived the war. Despite information on the aftermath of the war appearing throughout the book, the chapter in this final section clearly outlined the impact the war had on The Salvation Army in New Zealand, some elements the author showed continued to impact the Army to contemporary times. Discerning readers may identify there was a change in text style throughout the book. Part one used bold text to highlight names of Salvationists, this style was later removed without reason. As much research was carried out to identify each individual, the practice of listing the names in bold type was justifiable in its use and could have been continued throughout.

Under two flags also included historical photographs, drawings, letters and maps to support the text. These inclusions added to the pleasing layout of the book. There were several appendices that included information on enlisted Salvationists, information about the authors, Salvation Army officer ranks, a glossary of terms, and maps of New Zealand and theatres of war where New Zealanders served in World War One. The inclusion of many of the appendix assisted the reader to develop background and contextual understanding. A number of chapters had earlier been introduced to the public through The war cry, The officer or put through a peer review process by submission to The Australasian journal of Salvation Army history, The volunteers: The journal of the New Zealand military history society as well as book chapters. Each chapter was also extensively referenced with endnotes. There was a full and complete bibliography with a list of resources including books and websites. The book is also indexed for easy access to information.

Under two flags would be of great value to anyone interested in Salvation Army defence services, military history, New Zealand social history or the impact of war on religious groups. It is professionally researched and written and is a welcome addition to the growing study of Salvation Army history.

One of the images used in Under two flags

BOOK REVIEW USING HISTORY TO INFORM FUTURE PRACTICE

Reviewed by Garth R. Hentzschel

Julie A. Slous, Preaching a disturbing gospel (Toronto, Canada: The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda, 2012), 184 pp. ISBN 978 0 88857 500 51

Cover of Julie A. Slous’ book, Preaching a disturbing gospel

How can history inform best practice in contempory society or help the individual to improve their skills? Should such a question even be asked? There is some enjoyment in history for history’s sake, but there is increasing pressure for history to be relevant to organisational and societal needs by changing the future behaviour of citizens. I recently went to a conference where staff from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa spoke on their evaluation of the museum’s displays. They stressed that displays should not only be evaluated on their educational or informative level, but now on its ability to transform the viewer or to change their actions on events linked to the display. Preaching a disturbing gospel is within this mindset. The author researched history to help inform those who ‘preach’ in Salvation Army meetings and to do so in line with best practice. Julie A. Slous investigated the messages (sermons) of Catherine and William Booth to identify the structure and the elements of the published talks. From these messages, Slous developed guidelines for best practice and used these to evaluate modern sermons preached by Salvation Army officers. To test the guidelines, Slous used them to structure several sermons, which were included in the book. Such examples showed that Slous’ theory had a practical application even when used in the contemporary context.

Slous’ methodology was inquiry based. The formation of questions drove the research forward. The methodological strength was that it did not use worldviews or ideologies external or opposed to The Salvation Army. The research identified several distinct elements of Salvation Army messages during the early Army. The elements were: a “philosophy of aggression”, confronting sin and doing

Reference citation of this paper: Garth R. Hentzschel, “Book review, Using history to inform future practice”, The Australasian journal of Salvation Army history, 6, 1, 2021, 89 – 91.

1 At the time of publication of the AJSAH, the book was available online or instore at The Salvation Army Trade North, Canada and Bermuda https://store.salvationarmy.ca/shop/preaching-a-disturbing-gospel/ and amazon https://www.amazon.com.au/Preaching-Disturbing-Gospel-Julie-Slous/dp/0888575009

God’s will; “avoidance of Churchliness”, not using the terms of sermon or preaching; avoiding the “formal, liturgical or academic”; “fuelled by missional focus” which captured attention; a push for conversion of the individual and to have them think about eternal matters; “a unique ecumenical calling”, preaching in theatres, prisons and open-air; a focus on the poor; and a “deep burden for people”.2

Slous’ findings came from the investigation of the primary sources rather than using other theories or worldviews to evaluate and criticise Army methods. Preaching a disturbing gospel therefore avoided the unhelpful extreme criticism that attempts to reform The Salvation Army based on theories or models that have no links, and sometime are counterintuitive to the movement’s methods and ministry. Slous also clearly identified the context of the Booths and the world of their hearers. She was also able to articulate the current cultural worldview, Postmodernism. However, unlike many authors Slous did not just state “but these are different times”; she clearly outlined the areas of similarities and the differences while giving meaning to this comparison. The new theoretical framework developed by Slous was applied to a representation of contemporary sermons preached within The Salvation Army. The framework found all current sermons void of some elements which made Salvation Army messages distinct. It was found the more recent the officer was trained, the more elements were missing. Although a reason for this was not given, it could be due to other models and theories of ministry not supportive of Army practices influencing Salvation Army training facilities. This is an area that could lead to further study. Using the new framework developed from the research, four sample messages were included. Slous blended the historical elements with the understanding of Postmodernism to show how the past can inform the present and lead to a better future. There were constant reminders in Preaching a disturbing gospel that the mission of the Booths was to the poor, the missing element of Christian ministry in the Victorian era. Slous argued that although the poor are still important, the current missing elements of Christianity is much wider as all socioeconomic groups show high levels of nonattendance at church and are being influenced by worldviews other than Christianity. For this reason, Slous argued that some changes may be needed to the framework when developing messages to those not in the lower classes. However, there is some misconception here; Catherine especially often spoke to the West End population, a very different social class than that of the East End. Slous did point out that Catherine preached at the Midnight Movement for ‘fallen women’, however most of Catherine’s published messages were from the West End. 3 Therefore when a message of the Booths is to be analysed, the context of where it was used should be deeply understood. There were also missing specific links between the body of the text and the appendices. For example, Appendix B, “First-time Seekers in The Salvation Army” was not listed or analysed in the main text. Linking these statistics to the text could have given a stronger argument to the discussions in the study and added to reasons why the use of the historical theoretical framework should be introduced in message development in The Salvation Army. Also, it would have been interesting to see how Salvation Army resources such as Outlines of addresses4 would stand when compared to Slous’ theoretical framework for Salvation Army homiletics.

2 Julie A. Slous, Preaching a disturbing gospel (Toronto, Canada: The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda, 2012), Slous, Preaching a Disturbing Gospel, 27-42. 3 See for example the discussion in Slous, Preaching a disturbing gospel, 15. 4 Outlines of addresses for the use of officers of The Salvation Army, (London, UK: The Salvation Army Book Department, 1914).; Outlines of addresses for the use of Salvation Army officers, Volume II, (London, UK: Salvationist

The book is unique in the field of Salvation Army homiletics in that it used as its central worldview Army messages rather than non-Army sources. Non-Army sources were only used to support or extend discussion of the structure of messages and to analyse cultural and historical context. Preaching a disturbing gospel should become a leading work in what is hoped will be both a specific Salvation Army subset of homiletics and also a way to frame historical inquiry to inform best practice for Salvationists. The book somewhat mirrored Slous’ own life’s marriage between the theory and practice of homiletics. Not only had she received a PhD and instructed Salvationists in the area of homiletics, but for 15 years she held corps appointments and in addition to this was a presenter at Salvation Army conferences. In the era of officers plagiarising sermons from the internet, copying methods from churches with different foci, and the Army declining in power and converts in many territories, Preaching a disturbing gospel is timely research. It should be a text of required reading in all officer training and for anyone who will talk on the platform of Salvation Army halls. In the area of preaching, the readership should not stop here. If The Salvation Army and its officers are serious about accountability and transparency then every Salvationists should be armed with such a book to question and evaluate the homiletics displayed. Historians interested in the preaching of Catherine and William Booth as well as the history and development of elements of Army revivalism would also find the commencing chapters of the book beneficial. The book is also a clear example of the new approach to history, not only to entertain or inform, but to transform, to search for best practice and develop skills for present and future enhancement.

SALVATION ARMY HISTORY SNAPSHOT

“He has pardoned the sins of a poor old washerwoman like me!”

“Glory be to God, I’m saved inside and outside too!”

“I gave my heart to God last night, and begs you to pray for me!”5

Publishing and Supplies, 1940).; Outlines of addresses for the use of The Salvation Army officers, Volume III, (London, UK: Salvationist Publishing and Supplies, 1957). 5 “Three Army sermons”, The war cry, (London, 18 March 1899), 12.