The Salvation Army is a Christian denomination and international movement known for its charity shops and other charity work, operating in 126 countries. The organisation was founded in 1865 in the United Kingdom by William and Catherine Booth as the North London Christian Mission, operating with a quasi-military structure, which has been retained to the present day. The theology of the Salvation Army is mainstream Methodist although it is distinctive in government and practice. The Army's doctrine follow mainstream Christian beliefs, and its articles of faith emphasise God's "saving purposes". Its objects are "the advancement of the Christian religion… of education, the relief of poverty, and other charitable objects beneficial to society or the community of mankind as a whole."
Read more about The Salvation Army: History, Current Organization and Expenditures, Beliefs, Publications
Famous quotes containing the words salvation army, salvation and/or army:
“Christianity was only a very strong and singularly well-timed Salvation Army movement that happened to receive help from an unusual and highly dramatic incident. It was a Puritan reaction in an age when, no doubt, a Puritan reaction was much wanted; but like all sudden violent reactions, it soon wanted reacting against.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“This fantastic state of mind, of a humanity that has outrun its ideas, is matched by a political scene in the grotesque style, with Salvation Army methods, hallelujahs and bell-ringing and dervishlike repetition of monotonous catchwords, until everybody foams at the mouth. Fanaticism turns into a means of salvation, enthusiasm into epileptic ecstacy, politics becomes an opiate for the masses, a proletarian eschatology; and reason veils her face.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)