God S Soldiers

Throughout history members of the Society of Jesus, popularly known as Jesuits, have been accused of killing kings and presidents, have traveled as missionaries to every corner of the globe, founded haciendas in Mexico, explored the Mississippi and Amazon rivers, and served Chinese emperors as map makers, painters, and astronomers. As well as the predictable roll call of saints and martyrs, the Society can also lay claim to the thirty-five craters on the moon named for Jesuit scientists. Jesuits have been despised and idolized on a scale unknown to members of any other religious order; they have died the most horrible deaths and done the most outlandish deeds. Whether loved or loathed, the Jesuits’ dramatic and wide-ranging impact could never be ignored. By the mid-eighteenth century, they had established more than 650 educational institutions. They were also strongly committed to foreign missions, and like the secular explorers and settlers of the Age of Discovery, they traveled to the Far East, India, and the Americas to stake a claim. They were especially successful in Latin America, where they managed to put numerous villages entirely under Jesuit rule. The Jesuits’ successes both in Europe and abroad, coupled with rumors of scandal and corruption within the order, soon drew criticism from within the Church and without. Writers such as Pascal and Voltaire wrote polemics against them, and the absolute monarchs of Catholic Europe sought to destroy them. Their power was seen as so threatening that hostility escalated into serious political feuds, and at various times they were either banned or harshly suppressed throughout Europe. God’s Soldiers is a fascinating chronicle of this celebrated, mysterious, and often despised religious order. Jonathan Wright illuminates as never before their enduring contributions as well as the controversies that surrounded them. The result is an in-depth, unbiased, and utterly compelling history.

A revelatory account of the nouvelle thŽologie, a clerical movement that revitalized the Catholic ChurchÕs role in twentieth-century French political life. Secularism has been a cornerstone of French political culture since 1905, when the republic formalized the separation of church and state. At times the barrier of secularism has seemed impenetrable, stifling religious actors wishing to take part in political life. Yet in other instances, secularism has actually nurtured movements of the faithful. Soldiers of God in a Secular World explores one such case, that of the nouvelle thŽologie, or new theology. Developed in the interwar years by Jesuits and Dominicans, the nouvelle thŽologie reimagined the ChurchÕs relationship to public life, encouraging political activism, engaging with secular philosophy, and inspiring doctrinal changes adopted by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Nouveaux thŽologiens charted a path between the old alliance of throne and altar and secularismÕs demand for the privatization of religion. Envisioning a Church in but not of the public sphere, Catholic thinkers drew on theological principles to intervene in political questions while claiming to remain at armÕs length from politics proper. Sarah Shortall argues that this Òcounter-politicsÓ was central to the mission of the nouveaux thŽologiens: by recoding political statements in the ostensibly apolitical language of doctrine, priests were able to enter into debates over fascism and communism, democracy and human rights, colonialism and nuclear war. This approach found its highest expression during the Second World War, when the nouveaux thŽologiens led the spiritual resistance against Nazism. Claiming a powerful public voice, they collectively forged a new role for the Church amid the momentous political shifts of the twentieth century.

Soldiers and God will grip your soul. What you are about to read will cause you to think about where you are in life, where you want to be, and where you may very well be headed. Soldiers and God is dedicated to the fine men and women of the United States Army, the greatest army ever assembled in the history of mankind. Warning! The contents of this book may change your life.

First time in paperback, with a new Introduction and final chapter World affairs expert and intrepid travel journalist Robert D. Kaplan braved the dangers of war-ravaged Afghanistan in the 1980s, living among the mujahidin—the “soldiers of god”—whose unwavering devotion to Islam fueled their mission to oust the formidable Soviet invaders. In Soldiers of God we follow Kaplan’s extraordinary journey and learn how the thwarted Soviet invasion gave rise to the ruthless Taliban and the defining international conflagration of the twenty-first century. Kaplan returns a decade later and brings to life a lawless frontier. What he reveals is astonishing: teeming refugee camps on the deeply contentious Pakistan-Afghanistan border; a war front that combines primitive fighters with the most technologically advanced weapons known to man; rigorous Islamic indoctrination academies; a land of minefields plagued by drought, fierce tribalism, insurmountable ethnic and religious divisions, an abysmal literacy rate, and legions of war orphans who seek stability in military brotherhood. Traveling alongside Islamic guerrilla fighters, sharing their food, observing their piety in the face of deprivation, and witnessing their determination, Kaplan offers a unique opportunity to increase our understanding of a people and a country that are at the center of world events.

God's soldiers are under attack by Satan through sickness and disease. Many sit like Job with the mentality that God has forsaken them. Due to a lack of knowledge of what is included in the Atonement, some believe that their sickness and disease is the will of God. Why is there so little difficulty believing that we have freedom from sin's power in the Atonement, and so much controversy believing that it includes freedom from the power of sickness and disease? God has impressed my heart that his soldiers are settling for less than what he has promised in his word. Many are deficient in a knowledge of Scripture. Others have been taught wrong doctrine and are ignorant of God's promises (which belong to his children). This book is meant to give the understanding that it is God's will for us to recognize what the devil is doing and overcome his lies by faith. The Holy Spirit has been trying to set the captive free from sickness and disease, but wrong doctrine, misunderstanding of Scripture, and medical science have God's soldiers tormented by Satan's lies. This book addresses the devil's lies and is meant to once and for all set the captive free.

Extremely well researched and unique in its approach, citing nine individual Confederate soldiers and the impact of the Civil War on their Christianity. These case studies, largely drawn from their own words in letters and diaries, give a personal and individual perspective that has largely been overlooked in other similar works.

Around the world, young people under the age of eighteen serve in militaries and as part of armed groups. Their experiences vary from carefully controlled, such as the stories of sixteen-year-old soldiers in the British Armed Forces, to harrowing, such as the cases of teens who are forced to take up arms or face violence to themselves or their families. This book spans the globe, looking at the experiences of young soldiers to contextualize their role in world events, relate the circumstances of their daily lives, and help readers understand how teen soldiers' lives are similar to other teens' in ways both big and small.

This innovative study offers the first-ever comparison of the military roles played by commissars, political officers, and chaplains in military settings ranging from the armies of Cromwell, the Jacobins, the Nazis, the Soviets, and the United States. Despite the stark differences in the political systems of the countries of these disparate armed forces, Dale R. Herspring argues that there are certain critical functions that must be fulfilled in every military, regardless of its ideological orientation. Most vital are motivation, morale boosting, and political socialization. In addition, Herspring's comparative historical analysis decisively demonstrates that the roles of commissars, political officers, and chaplains alike have evolved in ways that are crucial yet rarely understood either by policymakers or scholars.