The Great War is not a historical episode that easily lends itself to studying the subtleties of religious belief systems. Believers on opposite sides claimed that they were engaged in a just war of defense against aggression. They argued that God was on their side, and they prayed for victory of their nation—even if that meant the destruction of their fellow believers who were now considered the enemy. Despite Catholic claims to internationalism and universalism, the overwhelming majority of Catholic bishops and prominent clerics in the public sphere devoted themselves to national causes. Clerical nationalism seemed to overwhelm Christian fellowship, and the clerical nationalist paradigm often served as scholarly shorthand for the experience of religion during the war, especially for long-term studies of Christianity and war. The implacable hostility between French and German Catholic bishops became a convenient symbol of European national enmity in an age of total war.

This article argues for a more nuanced cultural history of religion for the losing powers by looking comparatively at Catholicism in two different imperial frameworks. The article supplements imperial and national perspectives with local and supranational elements, thus contributing to a new historiographic generation of transnational conceptualization. The study of Catholicism allows one to examine the category of the nation, but also to get above and below it with imperial, ecclesiastical and local elements. By probing the similarities and differences of wartime Catholicism for the losing powers, a transnational history of religiosity allows scholars to go beyond standard histories of religion during the war that unjustly merge individual religious belief with ultimate collective defeat. The essay examines the figure of the Catholic military chaplain as a symbolic focal point of discussions of religion and warfare, both in literature and in scholarly discourse. The article begins by reconsidering the position of Catholicism in Germany and Austria-Hungary. Next, the essay examines the literary portrayal of chaplaincy during the war. From here, the essay looks at military chaplaincy in comparative imperial contexts. The heavily Catholic region of Tyrol serves as a case study highlighting many of the issues under consideration. Finally, the article suggests ways to move beyond chaplains towards a cultural history of religion for the losing powers.

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