Description
Book SynopsisA transnational comparative history of Catholic lived religion in Germany and Austria-Hungary during the Great War, this book demonstrates how Catholic forms of belief and practice enabled soldiers on the front line, as well as women and children on the home front, to endure war and loss.
Trade Review'By framing his study as a cross-border examination - simultaneously reviewing the Catholic experience in Germany, where believers formed a 'suspect minority,' and in Austria-Hungary, whose Catholics represented a 'favored majority' - the author avoids the trap of being misled by country-specific features and can demonstrate that his findings reflect the transnational nature of a shared Catholicism in the two countries. Houlihan has conducted extensive research in the Austrian, German, and Vatican archives and displays an impressive command of the published literature.' Albert L. Brancato, Journal of Jesuit Studies
Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Catholicism on the eve of the Great War in Germany and Austria-Hungary; 2. Theology and catastrophe; 3. The limits of religious authority: military chaplaincy and the bounds of clericalism; 4. Faith in the trenches: Catholic battlefield piety during the Great War; 5. The unquiet home front; 6. A voice in the wilderness: the papacy; 7. Memory, mourning, and the Catholic way of war; Conclusion; Sources; Index.
