Spiritual Readiness Quotes

“Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall, emphasized prior to our entry into World War II, “[the] determining factor in war is something invisible and intangible, something wholly spiritual.”
― Harold Koenig, Spiritual Readiness: Essentials for Military Leaders and Chaplains

“If religious involvement is an important source of spiritual readiness, then spiritual readiness should likewise affect human flourishing in ways that increase warrior readiness to preserve the peace and win wars.”
― Harold Koenig, Spiritual Readiness: Essentials for Military Leaders and Chaplains

“When a mission is conducted with honor, the emotional casualties from war (particularly inner conflicts) are far less common. Developing character and moral values is endorsed by virtually all religious traditions that have endured over time.”
― Harold Koenig, Spiritual Readiness: Essentials for Military Leaders and Chaplains

“How do you motivate men and women to fight and die for a cause many of them don’t believe in, and whose purpose they can’t articulate? What happens to the bonds between men and women in combat, and to the bonds between soldiers and the citizenry for whom they fight, when we fail as a nation to treat our wars as a collective responsibility, rather than the special mission of a self-selected few?”
― Harold Koenig, Spiritual Readiness: Essentials for Military Leaders and Chaplains

“If the courage of young men and women in battle truly does depend on the nature and quality of our civic society, we should be very worried… The clarity of purpose so central to bonding men in combat cannot emerge purely from the military itself. And in our current climate, after a decade and a half of multiple wars on multiple continents, the hope for such clarity is rotting away.”
― Harold Koenig, Spiritual Readiness: Essentials for Military Leaders and Chaplains