Reviewed by:

• A Religious History of the American GI in World War II by G. Kurt Piehler
• Michael Snape (bio)

A substantial body of literature exists on religion and the American service man and woman during World War II. Besides the voluminous (and surprisingly wide-ranging) official histories of Army, Navy, and Air Force chaplaincy published in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, more recent (and independent) studies of American military chaplaincy in the 1940s have also emerged. These include Alex Grobman's Rekindling the Flame: American Jewish Chaplains and the Survivors of European Jewry, 1944–48 (1993), Donald F. Crosby's Battlefield Chaplains: Catholic Priests in World War II (1994), Lyle W. Dorsett's Serving God and Country: U.S. Military Chaplains in World War II (2012), and Ronit Y. Stahl's Enlisting Faith: How the Military Chaplaincy Shaped Religion and State in Modern America (2017). The connections of specific religious groups, [End Page 502] and of American civil religion, with the armed forces have also been examined in books such as Anne C. Loveland's American Evangelicals and the U.S. Military 1942–1993, (1997), Deborah Dash Moore's GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation (2004), my own God and Uncle Sam: Religion and America's Armed Forces in World War II (2015), and Jonathan H. Ebel's G.I. Messiahs: Soldiering, War, and American Civil Religion (2015).

Given this extensive historiography, it is surprising that a thorough literature review is missing from this book, one that enables the reader to distinguish the distinctiveness of its contribution from what is already known, and even well established. For example, on the cover it is claimed that the book "breaks new ground by recounting the armed forces' unprecedented efforts to meet the spiritual needs of the fifteen million men and women who served in World War II." However, this theme was the leitmotif of the chaplaincy histories published in the aftermath of the war and has been closely covered in subsequent studies. Similarly, the (qualified) triumph of the "tri-faith vision" of American religious life, especially when exemplified in America's armed forces, will come as no surprise to those acquainted with the existing literature. Even less will the findings of the post-war survey The American Soldier (1949), which demonstrated that prayer was an indispensable support to soldiers on the front line. However, as the founder of the Rutgers Oral History Archives and a diligent researcher among many other archives, Kurt G. Piehler has made a valuable contribution in extending and enhancing our understanding of the experience of minorities such as African Americans, Chinese Americans, Native Americans, women (especially members of the Women's Army Corps), and more marginal religious groups such as Christian Scientists. His discussion of the relationship between psychiatry and pastoral care is also expansive and enlightening, as is his treatment of the National Committee of the Non-Church People of America.

There are, however, some snags with the bigger picture. One issue is that the influence of mainstream Hollywood on the conditioning of this generation is underestimated. In the build-up to war and in its early days, Americans were exposed to such compelling evocations of military piety as The Fighting 69^th (1940) and, supremely, Sergeant York (1941), which was still the third most watched film in American army bases in 1943. Furthermore, Mrs Miniver (1942), another Oscar-winning hit and Hollywood's most blatantly pro-British film, dwelt heavily on the religious character of life on the British home front, a portrayal which had some substance and helped to cement the nascent "special relationship" between the US and Great Britain. With reference to the wider media, it is also doubtful whether chaplaincy emerged from the war with, as argued, [End Page 503] a "relatively low profile" (315–16). Apart from chaplains' presence on the big screen, the airwaves had been filled with Frank J. Loesser's "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" (1942), Bing Crosby's "Soldiers of God" (1944), and by more than 200 weekly...

审阅者：

• G. Kurt Piehler 的《二战中美国大兵的宗教史》
• 迈克尔·斯内普（简介）

有大量关于宗教和二战期间美国男女军人的文献。除了 20 世纪 50 年代、60 年代和 70 年代出版的关于陆军、海军和空军牧师的大量（而且范围惊人的广泛）官方历史之外，还出现了关于 1940 年代美国军事牧师的更近期（且独立）的研究。其中包括亚历克斯·格罗布曼（Alex Grobman）的《重燃火焰：美国犹太牧师和欧洲犹太人的幸存者，1944-48》（1993年）、唐纳德·F·克罗斯比（Donald F. Crosby）的《战地牧师：第二次世界大战中的天主教牧师》（1994年）、莱尔·W·多塞特（Lyle W. Dorsett）的《侍奉上帝与国家》 ：第二次世界大战中的美国军事牧师（2012 年）和罗尼特·Y·斯塔尔的入伍信仰：军事牧师如何塑造现代美国的宗教和国家（2017 年）。Anne C. Loveland 的《 American Evangelicals and the US Military 1942–1993》（1997 年）、Deborah Dash等书中也探讨了特定宗教团体[第 502 页结束]以及美国公民宗教与武装部队的联系摩尔的《大兵犹太人：第二次世界大战如何改变了一代人》（2004 年）、《我自己的上帝和山姆大叔：二战中的宗教和美国武装力量》（2015 年）以及乔纳森·埃贝尔的《大兵弥赛亚：士兵、战争和美国公民》宗教（2015）。

考虑到如此广泛的历史编纂，令人惊讶的是，本书中缺少全面的文献综述，使读者能够将其贡献的独特性与已知的甚至是公认的内容区分开来。例如，封面上声称这本书“通过叙述武装部队为满足二战中服役的一千五百万男女的精神需求而做出的前所未有的努力，开辟了新天地”。然而，这一主题是战后出版的牧师历史的主旋律，并在随后的研究中得到了密切关注。同样，美国宗教生活的“三信仰愿景”的（有条件的）胜利，特别是在美国武装部队中得到体现，对于那些熟悉现有文献的人来说也就不足为奇了。战后调查《美国士兵》（1949）的调查结果更是如此，该调查表明祈祷是前线士兵不可或缺的支持。然而，作为罗格斯口述历史档案馆的创始人和许多其他档案馆的勤奋研究者，库尔特·G·皮勒 (Kurt G. Piehler)在扩展和加强我们对非裔美国人、华裔美国人、美洲原住民等少数族裔的经历的理解方面做出了宝贵的贡献。、妇女（特别是妇女军团的成员）以及更边缘的宗教团体，例如基督教科学家。他对精神病学和教牧关怀之间关系的讨论也是广泛而富有启发性的，他对美国非教会人民全国委员会的处理也是如此。

然而，从大局来看，也存在一些障碍。一个问题是，主流好莱坞对这一代人的影响被低估了。在战争的准备阶段和战争初期，美国人接触到了诸如《战斗第 69^日》（1940 年）和最出色的《约克中士》（1941 年）等令人信服的军事虔诚的唤起，该片仍然是美国观看次数第三多的电影。 1943 年美国陆军基地。此外，另一部奥斯卡获奖影片、好莱坞最公然亲英的电影《米尼弗夫人》（1942 年）深入探讨了英国后方生活的宗教特征，这一描写具有一定的实质内容，有助于巩固美国和英国之间新生的“特殊关系”。就更广泛的媒体而言，也值得怀疑的是，牧师职位是否从战争中出现，如[结束第503页]所说， “相对低调”（315-16）。除了大屏幕上的牧师出现外，电视广播中还充斥着弗兰克·J·洛塞 (Frank J. Loesser) 的《赞美主并传递弹药》(1942 年)、宾·克罗斯比 (Bing Crosby) 的《上帝的士兵》(1944 年)，以及超过 200 个每周节目...