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The Military Chaplain: Inscribing a Protestant Ethos on American Public Religion

This dissertation considers the changes the chaplaincy underwent during the period between the Vietnam and Gulf wars. It begins with an exposition of the Protestant history in American understandings of religion, and how this legacy had informed earlier iterations of religious inclusion in the U.S. military and the work of its chaplains. With this history in mind, the dissertation focuses in on a Department of the Army publication, the Military Chaplains’ Review, a professional journal that published essays by active chaplains and civilian academics and professionals from 1972-1992. The dissertation uses the Military Chaplains’ Review to explore the ways these changes were institutionalized in the language and culture of the military chaplaincy. These changes coalesced around the Katcoff v Marsh case (1985) in which the chaplaincy was brought to court with allegations that it violated the constitutional protection of the separation of church and state. This dissertation shows how this case helped solidify the changes the chaplaincy was already undergoing, which included an emphasis on the importance of the religiosity of those in the armed forces as a form of personal spirituality. The case was also part of a larger legal shift in U.S. courts toward an emphasis on the free exercise of religion over the separation of religion from public life. This dissertation makes clear that the Katcoff case crystallizes these changes within the chaplaincy and contributes to this shift in first amendment jurisprudence. / Religion

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:TEMPLE/oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/10343
Date05 1900
CreatorsSitek, Jessica, 0000-0001-9701-1811
ContributorsLevitt, Laura S, Alpert, Rebecca, Rey, Terry, Berman, Lila
PublisherTemple University. Libraries
Source SetsTemple University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis/Dissertation, Text
Format174 pages
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Relationhttp://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/10305, Theses and Dissertations

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