"The Gospel Has Always Been Disturbing": The Centrality of "God's Will" to the Cold War Political Activism of the Reverends Frank Hartley and Alfred Dickie

Religious faith was pivotal to the personal ideologies and radical political activism of the Reverends Alf Dickie and Frank Hartley, both of whom were prominent in the Australian peace movement from 1949 until the early seventies. This article examines Dickie's and Hartley's self-identification as prophets in the context of the optimism of the post-war era and its subsequent retreat as the Cold War altered the political climate. It examines how their post-war political activism was framed by a devout faith in the existence of an objective "truth" with regard to the Cold War, a "truth" based on a self-styled notion of the "Will of God". Further, it argues that suffering was understood by these self-declared prophets to be inherent to their mission and was thus embraced, when ostensibly visited upon them, as an affirmation of the righteousness of their cause. For Dickie and Hartley, an active association with the radical Left was a natural expression of God's Will.