When traditions are passed from generation to generation, and their meaning is not, they often feel out of touch or obsolete.
But there are reasons why Adventists do things the way they do. And some of them may surprise you.
Everything has a context, including religious movements. And in order to make sense of who we are today, we have to go back in time - to 1800s America.
Guests: Pedrito Maynard-Reid and Kevin Burton
Dive Deeper
Book | Adventism and the American Republic: The Public Involvement by a Major Apocalyptic Movement by Douglas Morgan
While many organized religions in America today have affinity for conservative political action groups such as the Christian Coalition, Seventh-day Adventists have often found themselves allied with liberals against such measures as Sunday laws and prayer in schools. Douglas Morgan now examines the role Adventism has played in American public life and explains its positions from the standpoint of the church's historical development, showing that its relationship with public policy, government, and politics is far more complex than most historians have believed.
Book | Ellen White's World: A Fascinating Look at the Times in Which She Lived by George R. Knight
Ellen White’s writings are important but they are only part of the story. The other part is the social and intellectual context in which she wrote. What was her world like? What problems did it face? What ideas were in vogue? What religious movements did she interact with? How did her ideas relate to the sentiments of other reformers of her day?
These and other questions stand at the heart of George R. Knight’s third volume in his series on Ellen White. The genius of Ellen White’s World is that it combines photographs with verbal descriptions to make Ellen White’s world come alive for the modern reader.
Resource | Center for Adventist Research
The Center for Adventist Research (CAR), seeks to promote an understanding and appreciation of the heritage and mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is an archive which combines the resources of the Adventist Heritage Center and the Ellen G. White Estate Branch Office to provide to patrons the most extensive collection of Adventist related resources in the world. Located on the lower level of the James White Library at Andrews University, it is positioned to not only facilitate the education of future Seventh-day Adventist church leaders, but to also develop academic and professional links with other Adventist heritage rooms and research centers throughout the world.
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