ABSTRACT
As the historiography of peace movements and pacifism has expanded in recent years and attracted new attention from scholars, these narratives have often—and justifiably—focused on the role of religion in the creation and sustaining of movements for peace. Arguably, however, the history of peace and peace movements cannot be told without also telling the history of war. This chapter argues that the historiography of peace in the United States has largely ignored the largest peace church with a commitment to nonviolence in America at the entry of the nation into World War I, and that by attending to the war, this history becomes visible. At the beginning of the war, the Church of Christ was strongly pacifistic, and the largest peace church in the United States. According to historian Jeanette Keith, the Churches of Christ, who practiced "Christian non-resistance," were larger than both the Quakers and the Mennonites.
