Author Description

Britain Lost More Lives In World War One Than In Any Other Conflict In Its Entire History. During One Of The Great War's Bloodiest Battles, Passchendaele, Seventeen Church Of England Clergymen Serving As Temporary Military Chaplains Contributed To The Church In The Furnace (1917). They Sought To Explain How The Church Needed To Change In The Light Of The War. Their Thoughts Were Considered Radical, And Their Prose Hard-hitting. They Demanded Significant And Immediate Reforms. These Padres Lived Through The Horrors Of 1914-18. Some Were Wounded, Some Were Gassed. Some Were Awarded The Military Cross, The Distinguished Service Order, Or Other Honours. They Decided That The War Was Meaningless, But If They Could Only Do Something Important That Truly Mattered After The War Then The Fallen Would Not Have Died In Vain: They Could Make Their Deaths Retrospectively Meaningful. The Fires Of Moloch Is A Group Biography Of A Generation That Endured Two World Wars, A Generation That Lived From The Victorian Age To The Atomic Age. Their Brothers Died In The First World War; Their Sons In The Second World War. Many Of Them Went On To Become Bishops And Thus To Feel The Burden Of Leading Rather Than Merely Criticizing. They Sought To Find A Cause Worthy Of The Sacrifices In The Fields And Trenches Of France And Flanders, Whether It Was Social Reform, The League Of Nations, Ecumenism, Improved Housing, Prayer, Pacificism, Or Something Else.