Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

The structure and identity of The Salvation Army is a form of prophetic irony. The Salvation Army is an ironic critique of the world’s false military power. It directly contradicts how kingdoms of this world function, as opposed to how the Kingdom of God works.

The Salvation Army is… An Army?

The dominant ecclesial metaphor of The Salvation Army is, rather obviously and unsurprisingly, military. Obvious for most within the Army anyway.

Simply the fact that I can use ‘the Army’ as shorthand for The Salvation Army says something. Or at least it does for people inside The Salvation Army. Outside, I tend to have to qualify any such shorthand to avoid confusion!

However, the military metaphor is less obvious for people outside of the Army.

Is The Salvation Army’s Military Metaphor Helpful?

Why would a church that worships a God called the Prince of Peace take up a military metaphor? The Salvation Army is not alone in using that metaphor, but no other denomination has taken it to the extremes that the Army has. Further, no other denomination has deployed it with the same prophetic irony as The Salvation Army.

There are military motifs in the Bible, one of the most obvious being Ephesians and the armour of God. In the history of the Church, there have been times when the military has served as a source of its self-understanding. Positively with the Society of Jesus, less so with the crusades. Why then, The Salvation Army?

How Did The Salvation Army become an Army?

The Salvation Army was not born ex nihilo but emerged from its cultural and religious context.

The name change from Christian Mission to The Salvation Army in 1878 did not spring up out of nowhere. Rather, it was a response to gradually changing cultural and social dynamics within the Christian Mission. Military language was creeping in, ranks were being used, and rudimentary uniforms were emerging.

This had been done before in other missionary movements, but something about the combination of American revivalism, Wesleyan holiness, and British proto-pentacostalism all came together to create the perfect ground for a military Ecclesiology to emerge. These came before the name change, not as a response to it.

The Influence of Empire and Colonialism

Culturally, late 19th century Britain was an age of colonial military conquest where the British Empire spread it’s arms around the world and with it went the Anglican Church. Lutheranism followed the German Empire and the Reformed churches followed the Dutch colonies. Where European colonies were established so too went the European churches.

It was equally an age which saw a rise in Roman Catholic evangelism and missions across the world, often with far greater energy and cultural sensitivity than the Protestant churches.

The American Civil War was just finishing, and there hadn’t been a major European conflict for decades. The military was in the ascendancy in popular culture as the defenders of empire who paved the way for civilisation (which equated with Christian civilisation) to save the world.

Great Awakenings and The Myth of Progress

The Great Awakenings in the USA and the British Revivals had seen a rise in popular, pietistic, and enthusiast religion. These emerging movements utilised highly aggressive, combative language in their call to win the world for Jesus.

Filled by the enlightenment myth of progress, the Victorian belief in an ordained social order, and a heady dose of post-millennialism, these movements saw their mission as taking light into a dark world and beating back the devil from the world.

It was in this context that The Salvation Army rose out of the wastes of the East End of London. When the military, empire and Christianity were intricately linked as part of everyday culture. It was understandable that the military metaphor would grow for a movement that was based on aggressive Christianity, which needed to win the world for God.

But is that still true today?

Empires Are The Bad Guys Today

Whilst the military has remained one of the only institutions to hold the public trust and to continually maintain a great level of general respect, military involvement and warfare is no longer glorified.

Two world wars and the almost never-ending conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries have starkly revealed the horrors of war.

Christian theology has been rethought in the shadow of the gas chambers, of genocide and bitter fratricidal killing. Theology has been written in light of political upheaval, of social unrest and of the fight for liberty.

New waves of Christian pacifism have risen up alongside a recognition of the long years of abuse and subjugation the church has been involved in. The culture that birthed The Salvation Army died a long time ago.

Does The Salvation Army’s Military Metaphor Still Have Something To Offer?

What, then, does the military metaphor have to offer today’s world?

One option is to discard it altogether. To move on and find a new way of understanding who we are. I think that’s akin to throwing out a bed because the sheets need a wash. Or we could re-emphasise the military focus, aiming to mobilise and conquer the world. Become a more aggressive army than ever before to stand against the world’s darkness. But I think that speaks more to one’s own desires than to God.

Using Irony to Create a Prophetic Army

My suggestion is to reorient the metaphor rather than change it or deepen it.

In a world of military might, of wars and violence, what does an Army of Salvation have to say? Where the power of the state is the depth of its purse and the reach of its sword, what does an Army of Peace mean? This, I would argue, is what the military metaphor can do for us. The Salvation Army can stand as a source of prophetic irony in this world.

The Prophetic Irony of The Salvation Army

The Army of God comes with peace, acceptance and tolerance. God’s Army doesn’t hurt or condemn but seeks to grow and renew. God’s Army doesn’t break apart nations or families but brings reconciliation.

There has never been a greater need for an Army of Peace to reflect back the broken, shadowy images of the world.

The Lord breaks the bow and snaps the spear; the Lord makes wars cease in all the Earth. Imagine if the armies of the world could start to look more like an Army of Peace? Or if nations beat steel into ploughs rather than iron into bombs. Imagine if, when people think of an army, they encounter The Salvation Army and recognise that it is the way of the cross, of sacrificial love, that is the only way that this world will change.

The prophetic irony of The Salvation Army stands as a critique and challenge to the powers and principalities of this world.

Sign Up to My Theology Corner Newsletter

If you want to keep up to date, sign up for My Theology Corner Newsletter for a weekly bite-sized theology hit. Get short-form reflections from topics on the main blog and or on other interesting topics from that week.