# Church Militants and the actual military.



## Stormcat (Jan 23, 2018)

Organized religions and armed forces assign ranks to their members. However, Churches don't call their priests "Seargent" and militaries don't call their soldiers "Reverend". But what if there was an organization that blurred the lines between the military and the church? How would the members be ranked?

My story takes place under a totalitarian theocracy. Soldiers enforce the will of the church, and the military considers all of its members to be "defenders of the faith". What titles should I use for the members of this organization?


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## velo (Jan 26, 2018)

I don't think 'should' comes into this.  You can use whatever you like.  If you are making up your own theology why not ranks as well?  Or perhaps one's title is their rank if all members of the clergy are also members of the military. Or perhaps militarised versions of the civilians titles.  I think you have a lot of leeway.  

Some of the most-effective world-building in books I've read is when the author creates an internal 'style' to that world.  Build a nomenclature based on that style.  Mixing in real world terms for familiarity can work as well.  "Sergeant of the Faith" "Grand Bishop of the Navy"  Play with it and see what shakes out?


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## Ralph Rotten (Jan 29, 2018)

Actually, in the past the church(s) has had militants and soldiers, and even their own police force.  Jesus was not snatched from the garden by Romans, he was taken by church guards.  

In several theocracies around the world they employ church police who go around with sticks and hassle people not obeying a strict interpretation of Islam.  Sometimes they arrest people for not being holy enough.  At various points in history there have been Christian equivalents of Sharia law.


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## tobiasgray (Jan 30, 2018)

I think you'd be able to really play on the words here. For example your soldiers could be 'priests' and then your next highest rank could be 'bishops' and you could even thrown in a few more fantastical titles like 'paladin'. Of course this all depends strongly on how your theocracy is set up. I would think that you have plenty of room to play around with and I would suggest trial and error to see what sounds like it would fit the best within your canon. Good luck!


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## She_wants_revenge (Jan 30, 2018)

The Templar's were an organization of holy soldiers. If I remember correctly they had titles: 





> Grandmaster, Marshal, Knight, sergeant


 and so on. I'm not sure if this helps you, but it does give an example of a religious military with titles to boot.


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