2013 ASDAH Conference Papers
Listed in alphabetical order of the first author's last name.
Kaitlyn Bylard, student, Pacific Union College, USA
Finding a Space to Thrive in the Societal Middle Antebellum African Americans in American Society
Abstract: Until the Civil War, the population in the United States often divided itself into the two separate categories of free white and slave black. However, free African Americans blurred the lines between these stringent distinctions. Moreover, the free African American challenged the ideas both free and slave had about the social order of the United States. Comprising about ten percent of the population of the United States by the time of the Civil War, free African Americans, particularly the most successful ones, who were skilled businessmen or artisans, showed that African Americans could live independently from their white masters. The primary trouble that the free African Americans experienced was their status as minorities and former slaves prohibited economic and social growth. Additionally, as a product of interracial unions, mulattos, who were also more likely to be manumitted, exposed another ugly aspect of slavery. These mixtures of who was slave or who was free and who was black or who was white, created a liminal space between the pressures or two cultures and races. Free African Americans created their own identities and communities that allowed them to often deflect and sometimes thrive among the pressures and difficulties they experienced. Even though social and economic troubles stalked almost all of free African Americans’ lives, they were able to build strong communities and on rare occasions even gained the height of accomplishment. Yet because they were caught in the perilous position of living between the free white and the slave black communities, distinguishing their own unique identity was often extremely difficult.
Download: Bylard's paper (MS Word)
___________________
Dr. Jeff Crocombe, Pacific Adventist University, Papua New Guinea
SDA Reactions to Compulsory Military Service in Australia 1903-1917
Abstract: Australia’s Defence Act of 1903 made military service voluntary – except in times of war or national emergency, when a militia could be conscripted. While the act allowed for conscientious objection in line with personal religious beliefs, the issue of conscientious objection was moot until 1909, when a Federal Act introducing compulsory military training was passed. At this point, objections to military service on religious grounds – including the objections expressed by Australian Seventh-day Adventists – became for the first time in Australian history, an ideology that prompted dissent from government policy. Two plebiscites for conscription were held – and with the defeat of the second on December 20, 1917 – the problems faced by Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objectors largely dissipated – at least until the outbreak of World War II in September 1939. This paper will examine the reactions of Seventh-day Adventists towards compulsory military service in Australia during the years 1903 to 1917.
Download:: Crocombe's paper (PDF)
____________________
Dr. Lisa Diller, Southern Adventist University, USA
Incarnation and Theology - (Sabbath Sermon)
Download: Diller's Sermon (MSt Word)
____________________
Dr. Alfonzo Greene, Jr., Oakwood University, USA
Otis B. Edwards: A Standard of Excellence
Abstract: This paper recounts the influence Otis B. Edwards exerted on both Oakwood Junior College and Oakwood College, during his tenure as Chair of the History Department. Edwards' personal striving for excellence in classroom instruction, and his passion to instill perfection in his students is addressed.
Download: N/A
____________________
Dr. John Grys, Wenatchee Seventh-day Adventist Church, USA
A.G. Daniells and the Dilemmas of Adventist Leadership
Abstract: There were certain core consistent themes of A. G. Daniells’ leadership. He structured the General Conference Sessions during his presidential years to reflect those themes. By examining his various speeches throughout the GC Sessions and the ways he organized and reported (especially during “The President’s Address” sections of the sessions) the work of the church to the whole body, the paper will seek to reveal the aspect of leading during times of upheaval and transition. Were consistent themes present through each session throughout Daniells’ twenty-one years as President? If so, did he contextualize those to the issues of the day? How did these themes and the structuring brought to bear at each session bring stability during a time of incredible transition?
Download: Grys' paper (MS Word)
____________________
Dr. Gary Land, Andrews University, USA
Uriah Smith’s “Great Globetrotting Trip:” Scandinavia
Abstract: Uriah Smith’s 1894 trip to Europe and the Middle East is not of particular historical importance, but because there are more sources providing information about this trip than for any other part of his life, we gain glimpses of Smith’s views and personality not revealed elsewhere. This paper describes only the Scandinavian portion of the trip, but Smith’s opinions regarding Protestantism and Catholicism, Adventist health reform, and the viability of Adventist doctrine appear in the sources as they do throughout the remainder of his travels. The trip did not so much change Smith’s outlook as it confirmed perspectives he had developed during his more than forty years in Adventism.
Download: Land's paper (MS Word)
____________________
Dr. Bruce W. Lo, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, USA & University of Wollongong, Australia
The Roles of Two Union College Brothers, J.N. & B.L. Anderson, in Facilitating the Adventist Church's Transition to a World Movement in the Early 1900s: A first report from the Adventism in China project
Abstract: The Anderson brothers, Jacob N. Anderson, a former professor of religion at Union College and Benjamin L. Anderson, a graduate of Union College were pioneer missionaries to China arriving there in 1902 and 1906 respectively, at a time when the Seventh-day Adventist Church in America was undergoing a transition from a single-nation focused church to one with a greater awareness of the global nature of its callings. J.N. was in fact acknowledged as the first official missionary to China commissioned by the Adventist Church. This paper describes the stories of these two pioneers, and their efforts in bringing the Adventist message to this most populous country of the world, thus facilitating the church's transition to becoming a worldwide movement. It is argued that the Adventist church cannot claim to be a true global church unless it has a meaningful presence in a nation that represents one-fifth of the world's population. The paper attempts to analyze some of the methods or strategies that they used in introducing the Adventist message to the Chinese whose value system and cultural practices were so different from their own. The paper further examines the conditions that arose in China during the early 20th century that may have contributed to the receptiveness of Chinese people to Western Christianity. The stories of the two Anderson brothers are based on the initial findings from the Adventism in China project which aims to comprehensively research and document the history of the Adventist movement in China. Individuals and scholars who are interested in contributing to this project are encouraged to contact the author.
Download: Lo's paper PDF
____________________
Dr. Samuel London, Oakwood University, USA
Clarence Barnes: The Will to Succeed
Abstract: This paper relates the experiences of Clarence Barnes, an Adventist educator that chaired the Department of History at Oakwood College from 1975 to 1988. It highlights his determination to succeed in the pursuit of a career in Christian education.
Download: N/A
____________________
Chris Lovato, Student, Southern Adventist University, USA
Parents, Curses, and Monkeys, An Examination of Racial Slavery Rhetoric in the Antebellum South
Abstract: Slavery during the Civil War era can be considered to be a blight on the record of American history. The harsh realities of degradation and disrespect that slaves endured while living on a southern plantation helped give the negative connotation that is attached to the word slavery. Not only were the conditions of slavery inhumane, but the fact that all slaves were black, made the institution of slavery much worse. The question that begs to be asked is why was it that all slaves on southern plantations were black? This research examines the reasons as to why southern slaveholders used blacks as slaves, and the rhetoric that proslavery advocates used to defend racial slavery. Special attention is given to the biblical and scientific justifications used by prominent ministers and doctors in defending the use of blacks as slaves. Much of the evidence used in this research consists of published material of lectures and sermons given by doctors and ministers. Many ministers justified racial slavery from the bible claiming that the black race was the offspring of cursed Ham, while scientists taught that blacks had originated from monkeys and were physiologically better able to work in the hot and humid climate of the South. Together the religious and scientific justifications for racialized slavery helped construct a society that saw the black race as an abominable sub-specie that needed the civilizing powers of Christianity. Slavery during the Civil War era was a very unique time in American history, and it is the intent of this research to show how valuable lessons can be drawn from this dark history to help make sense of the issues in equality that currently confront Americans.
Download: N/A
____________________
Dr. Ben McArthur, Southern Adventist University, USA
Balancing Contending Demands: A. G. Daniells between 1908 and 1910
Abstract: How did A. G. Daniells seek to balance the contending demands made upon him during the years 1908-1910? These included the need to promote the church’s medical work after the departure of Kellogg and the Battle Creek Sanitarium; balancing the nurture of membership with the desire to have pastors be active evangelists; concern over revision of The Great Controversy in 1910; and Ellen White’s desire that he actively assume urban evangelistic work. And always, there was the effort to make too little funds stretch to cover the many needs.
Download: McArthur's paper (MS Word)
_____________________
Dr. Douglas Morgan, Oakwood University, USA
The Significance of a Solid Start: Adventism and Race Relations, 1880-1920
Abstract: Adventism is “retarded” in race relations, wrote the noted African American author Arna Bontemps in 1950, adding that the church was “solid” on the issue in its early years but then compromised “to appease the white South.” The compromise, the resulting decades of segregation and racism, and the institutional church’s refusal to engage in the civil rights movement became the dominant storyline for Adventism and race relations. This paper examines evidence from the decades bridging the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, much of it long overlooked or downplayed, that points to a substantial strand of racial idealism, and proposes therefore that the “solid” start to which Bontemps referred deserves greater prominence in the story of Adventism and America’s foremost moral contradiction.
Download: Morgan's paper (MS Word)
_____________________
Dr. Richard Osborn, Western Association of Schools & Colleges, Accrediting Commission of Senior Colleges & Universities, USA
The Changing Ecology of Higher Education: A Threat to History Departments?
Abstract: Many higher education leaders suggest that they have never seen as much change to the ecology of higher education as during the last two years. What impact will this changing ecology have on history departments? Will the existence of traditional liberal arts departments in small faith-based residential liberal arts colleges and universities be threatened by trends toward free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), badges, certificates, competency-based education, careerism, and Do-It-Yourselfers? Richard Osborn, Vice President of the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges & Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, former Adventist education administrator, and longtime member of ASDAH, will outline some of the trends with possible implications for Adventist higher education and history departments.
Download: N/A
_____________________
Dr. Glenn O. Phillips, Morgan State University, USA
The Shaping of Early Eastern Caribbean Adventist Leadership; Charles J. B. Cave and George E. Peters, 1884 - 1920
Abstract: Seventh-day Adventist literature began arriving in the eastern Caribbean during the mid-1880’s in response to numerous requests from various residents for literature on Sabbath observance and the Second Coming of Jesus. Visiting Adventist literature evangelists quickly followed and itinerate Adventist ministers arrived later. Two young early converts were Charles Cave in Barbados and George Peters in Antigua. Both immediately dedicated their lives to serving their new faith and quickly became outstanding Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders serving until their deaths decades later. Cave was a dynamic and resourceful medical evangelist in his home land and around the eastern Caribbean; Peters was an outstanding evangelist, pastor and church administrator first in the America South and then in large urban centers including Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia. He also served in the G.C. as head of the Negro Department for twelve years and finally as a Field Secretary of the G.C. of SDA. This paper argues that the early Adventist missionaries helped to shape a distinct Seventh day Adventist Caribbean identity that appealed to many Caribbean youth. Their commitment compelled them to get prepared to be church leaders and led to their success for decades to come. Cave enrolled in the American Medical Missionary College under Dr. John Harvey Kellogg’s tutelage and received his medical degree in June 1907. Peters attended the Oakwood School in its early days before launching a very productive pastoral career across the American South.
Download: Phillips' paper (MS Word)
_____________________
Dr. Malcolm Russell, Union College, USA
Contrasting Pioneers: The Relationship between Walter Ising and Bashir Hasso
Abstract: This paper seeks to interpret the relationship between Walter Konrad Wilhelm Ising, the pioneering Adventist missionary in the Levant, and Bashir Hasso, one of his first converts. In 1911, seven young men attended Ising’s series of evangelistic meetings held in Beirut. Among them was Bashir Hasso, age twenty-one, a pharmacy student at Syria Protestant College. After studying with Ising and reading Smith’s Daniel and Revelation, Hasso was baptized, among the first converts to Adventism in the region. After finishing his studies, he returned to his family home in Mosul, ruled by the Ottoman Empire like the rest of Mesopotamia. Shortly thereafter, Ising, a German citizen, fell into British hands and spent five years as a prisoner of war. Hasso was drafted into the Ottoman (Turkish) Army and may also have been a prisoner of war. At the end of the war, Hasso returned to his family in Mosul. In 1923, Ising travelled overland to visit Mosul, where he found that Hasso had shared his faith and had even prepared seven individuals for Ising to baptize. Thereafter, Hasso would continue as a strong supporter of Adventism. During the next decades, his store in Baghdad grew to be the most successful locally-owned retailer in the new country of Iraq, and he generously donated substantial sums to the denomination both inside and outside the country. Thanks primarily to Hasso and his relatives, Adventism established indigenous roots in Iraq, the only such location in the Middle East.
Download: N/A
_____________________
Dr. Ciro Sepulveda, Oakwood University, USA
Booker T. Washington, Ellen G. White, and the Birth of the SDA Manual Training Schools.
Abstract: In the 1920s dozens of Adventist Manual Training Schools, multiplying at an exceptional pace, could be found all over the planet. In contrast, in the 1870s, when Adventist Schools were founded, they struggled to stay afloat. The few that were founded in the 1870s, 1880, and 1890s scrapped valiantly for funding, students, and teachers. Facing insurmountable odds many Adventist schools closed. This reality rubs against the idea that Ellen G. White had a divine plan, a pattern, or a blueprint, which assured the success of Adventist Education. If such a pattern existed why did the early schools and colleges of the Adventist Church wait till the end of the century to adopt it? Or even more important why did the vibrant growth of Adventist schools, the increase in students and proliferation of Adventist teachers wait for thirty years to take off? What turned Adventist Education around? This paper examines the transformation that engulfed Adventist Education at the turn of the century after it adopted the manual training schools as its model. A close look at Booker T. Washington, the first Adventist Manual Training School in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta in 1896, and the role played by Ellen White in the founding of Avondale College in Australia in 1897 - sheds light into how Adventist manual training school surfaced and powered the growth of Adventist Education.
Download: Sepulveda's paper (MS Word)
_____________________
Dr. Ciro Sepulveda & Bernude Jesucat , Oakwood University, USA
Emmanuel Saunders: Empathetic Leadership
Abstract: This paper recites the history of Emmanuel Saunders who served as Chair of the Department of History and Political Science in the last decade of the 20th century. A native of Trinidad, Saunders would eventually attend Southern Caribbean College - following his family's conversion to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Ultimately, he would continue his education at Emmanuel Missionary College. His desire to teach at an Adventist institution and his compassion for the young people of the Church brought him to Oakwood College.
Download: Sepulveda & Jesucat's paper (MS Word)
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Dr. Brian Strayer, Andrews University, USA
Little Man, Long Shadow: The Legacy of J. N. Loughborough
Abstract: John Norton Loughborough deserves to be remembered as one of our church’s outstanding pioneers for his evangelistic work in new territories, his outstanding leadership, his creative innovations, his encouragement of music, his combatting fanaticism, his promotion of spirituality, his training of future church leaders, and his interpretation of the past, Although in life he was a tiny man, after his death in 1924 he cast a long shadow that continues to shape the Adventist church today.
Download: Strayer's paper (PDF)
_____________________
Erika Weidemann, Student, Pacific Union College, USA
Ethnicity and Loyalty: The Volksdeutsche’s Relationship with the Soviet Union
Abstract: As a child, Lilly Zaft lived in a German settlement along the Dnieper River in southern Russia. However, her connections with Russia were not limited to her birthplace. Family stories tell of how her grandfather, a German landowner living in Russia, was one of a group of men sent to rescue Tsar Nicholas II. Unsuccessful, the family eventually settled in Chortitza, a German settlement established in the late 1700s and the town where Lilly was born in. Lilly, her family, and many other ethnic Germans known as the Volksdeutsche were Germans living outside the nation’s boundaries prior to the Second World War. While not all Volksdeutsche held strong ties to Germany and German culture, this paper will focus on the Black Sea German Russians from the 1930s to 1946, Volksdeutsche who retained their German language, religion, and customs. Before, during, and after World War II, these Volksdeutsche were often regarded by the Soviet Union as traitors because of their ties and their willingness to aid the Germans. This paper will highlight the Volkdeutsche in Chortitza before, during, and after the war. As seen in the saga of the Zaft family, while their German nationality had once given families such as theirs Russian land, during World War II their ethnicity made them traitors to the Soviet Union.
Download: Weidemann's paper (MS Word)
_____________________
Dr. Gilbert Valentine, La Siarra University, USA
How We Did Business: Conflict of Interest and General Conference Session Electoral Processes 1897 – 1926
Abstract: Despite building frustration and repeated calls for various kinds of reform in the Adventist Church of the 1890s and despite the rising incidence of conflict and competition among and between institutions, conferences and church leaders, the calls for reform went largely unheeded. This paper will argue that among the various reasons the conflict of interest inherent in the church’s election processes was a significant factor that impeded the adoption of change and made the transition to a new form of church structure more difficult than it should have been. General Conference sessions and elections were based on an electoral system that almost guaranteed the maintenance of the status quo. Sitting presidents of the General Conference exercised the power of naming the small but powerful session nominating committee. Furthermore, the small but powerful incumbent executive committee continued to function even during sessions. Early attempts at reform were stifled by this inherent conflict of interest. The changes eventually implemented in 1901 resulted from a way being found to circumvent the conflict of interest. The full democratization of the electoral process and the eventual elimination of the electoral conflict of interest took a further quarter of a century after 1901 to achieve and was not accomplished until the 1926 General Conference Session. The story of how this was achieved opens a new window into understanding the processes of organizational change in denominational history.
Download: Valentine's paper (MS Word)
Finding a Space to Thrive in the Societal Middle Antebellum African Americans in American Society
Abstract: Until the Civil War, the population in the United States often divided itself into the two separate categories of free white and slave black. However, free African Americans blurred the lines between these stringent distinctions. Moreover, the free African American challenged the ideas both free and slave had about the social order of the United States. Comprising about ten percent of the population of the United States by the time of the Civil War, free African Americans, particularly the most successful ones, who were skilled businessmen or artisans, showed that African Americans could live independently from their white masters. The primary trouble that the free African Americans experienced was their status as minorities and former slaves prohibited economic and social growth. Additionally, as a product of interracial unions, mulattos, who were also more likely to be manumitted, exposed another ugly aspect of slavery. These mixtures of who was slave or who was free and who was black or who was white, created a liminal space between the pressures or two cultures and races. Free African Americans created their own identities and communities that allowed them to often deflect and sometimes thrive among the pressures and difficulties they experienced. Even though social and economic troubles stalked almost all of free African Americans’ lives, they were able to build strong communities and on rare occasions even gained the height of accomplishment. Yet because they were caught in the perilous position of living between the free white and the slave black communities, distinguishing their own unique identity was often extremely difficult.
Download: Bylard's paper (MS Word)
___________________
Dr. Jeff Crocombe, Pacific Adventist University, Papua New Guinea
SDA Reactions to Compulsory Military Service in Australia 1903-1917
Abstract: Australia’s Defence Act of 1903 made military service voluntary – except in times of war or national emergency, when a militia could be conscripted. While the act allowed for conscientious objection in line with personal religious beliefs, the issue of conscientious objection was moot until 1909, when a Federal Act introducing compulsory military training was passed. At this point, objections to military service on religious grounds – including the objections expressed by Australian Seventh-day Adventists – became for the first time in Australian history, an ideology that prompted dissent from government policy. Two plebiscites for conscription were held – and with the defeat of the second on December 20, 1917 – the problems faced by Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objectors largely dissipated – at least until the outbreak of World War II in September 1939. This paper will examine the reactions of Seventh-day Adventists towards compulsory military service in Australia during the years 1903 to 1917.
Download:: Crocombe's paper (PDF)
____________________
Dr. Lisa Diller, Southern Adventist University, USA
Incarnation and Theology - (Sabbath Sermon)
Download: Diller's Sermon (MSt Word)
____________________
Dr. Alfonzo Greene, Jr., Oakwood University, USA
Otis B. Edwards: A Standard of Excellence
Abstract: This paper recounts the influence Otis B. Edwards exerted on both Oakwood Junior College and Oakwood College, during his tenure as Chair of the History Department. Edwards' personal striving for excellence in classroom instruction, and his passion to instill perfection in his students is addressed.
Download: N/A
____________________
Dr. John Grys, Wenatchee Seventh-day Adventist Church, USA
A.G. Daniells and the Dilemmas of Adventist Leadership
Abstract: There were certain core consistent themes of A. G. Daniells’ leadership. He structured the General Conference Sessions during his presidential years to reflect those themes. By examining his various speeches throughout the GC Sessions and the ways he organized and reported (especially during “The President’s Address” sections of the sessions) the work of the church to the whole body, the paper will seek to reveal the aspect of leading during times of upheaval and transition. Were consistent themes present through each session throughout Daniells’ twenty-one years as President? If so, did he contextualize those to the issues of the day? How did these themes and the structuring brought to bear at each session bring stability during a time of incredible transition?
Download: Grys' paper (MS Word)
____________________
Dr. Gary Land, Andrews University, USA
Uriah Smith’s “Great Globetrotting Trip:” Scandinavia
Abstract: Uriah Smith’s 1894 trip to Europe and the Middle East is not of particular historical importance, but because there are more sources providing information about this trip than for any other part of his life, we gain glimpses of Smith’s views and personality not revealed elsewhere. This paper describes only the Scandinavian portion of the trip, but Smith’s opinions regarding Protestantism and Catholicism, Adventist health reform, and the viability of Adventist doctrine appear in the sources as they do throughout the remainder of his travels. The trip did not so much change Smith’s outlook as it confirmed perspectives he had developed during his more than forty years in Adventism.
Download: Land's paper (MS Word)
____________________
Dr. Bruce W. Lo, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, USA & University of Wollongong, Australia
The Roles of Two Union College Brothers, J.N. & B.L. Anderson, in Facilitating the Adventist Church's Transition to a World Movement in the Early 1900s: A first report from the Adventism in China project
Abstract: The Anderson brothers, Jacob N. Anderson, a former professor of religion at Union College and Benjamin L. Anderson, a graduate of Union College were pioneer missionaries to China arriving there in 1902 and 1906 respectively, at a time when the Seventh-day Adventist Church in America was undergoing a transition from a single-nation focused church to one with a greater awareness of the global nature of its callings. J.N. was in fact acknowledged as the first official missionary to China commissioned by the Adventist Church. This paper describes the stories of these two pioneers, and their efforts in bringing the Adventist message to this most populous country of the world, thus facilitating the church's transition to becoming a worldwide movement. It is argued that the Adventist church cannot claim to be a true global church unless it has a meaningful presence in a nation that represents one-fifth of the world's population. The paper attempts to analyze some of the methods or strategies that they used in introducing the Adventist message to the Chinese whose value system and cultural practices were so different from their own. The paper further examines the conditions that arose in China during the early 20th century that may have contributed to the receptiveness of Chinese people to Western Christianity. The stories of the two Anderson brothers are based on the initial findings from the Adventism in China project which aims to comprehensively research and document the history of the Adventist movement in China. Individuals and scholars who are interested in contributing to this project are encouraged to contact the author.
Download: Lo's paper PDF
____________________
Dr. Samuel London, Oakwood University, USA
Clarence Barnes: The Will to Succeed
Abstract: This paper relates the experiences of Clarence Barnes, an Adventist educator that chaired the Department of History at Oakwood College from 1975 to 1988. It highlights his determination to succeed in the pursuit of a career in Christian education.
Download: N/A
____________________
Chris Lovato, Student, Southern Adventist University, USA
Parents, Curses, and Monkeys, An Examination of Racial Slavery Rhetoric in the Antebellum South
Abstract: Slavery during the Civil War era can be considered to be a blight on the record of American history. The harsh realities of degradation and disrespect that slaves endured while living on a southern plantation helped give the negative connotation that is attached to the word slavery. Not only were the conditions of slavery inhumane, but the fact that all slaves were black, made the institution of slavery much worse. The question that begs to be asked is why was it that all slaves on southern plantations were black? This research examines the reasons as to why southern slaveholders used blacks as slaves, and the rhetoric that proslavery advocates used to defend racial slavery. Special attention is given to the biblical and scientific justifications used by prominent ministers and doctors in defending the use of blacks as slaves. Much of the evidence used in this research consists of published material of lectures and sermons given by doctors and ministers. Many ministers justified racial slavery from the bible claiming that the black race was the offspring of cursed Ham, while scientists taught that blacks had originated from monkeys and were physiologically better able to work in the hot and humid climate of the South. Together the religious and scientific justifications for racialized slavery helped construct a society that saw the black race as an abominable sub-specie that needed the civilizing powers of Christianity. Slavery during the Civil War era was a very unique time in American history, and it is the intent of this research to show how valuable lessons can be drawn from this dark history to help make sense of the issues in equality that currently confront Americans.
Download: N/A
____________________
Dr. Ben McArthur, Southern Adventist University, USA
Balancing Contending Demands: A. G. Daniells between 1908 and 1910
Abstract: How did A. G. Daniells seek to balance the contending demands made upon him during the years 1908-1910? These included the need to promote the church’s medical work after the departure of Kellogg and the Battle Creek Sanitarium; balancing the nurture of membership with the desire to have pastors be active evangelists; concern over revision of The Great Controversy in 1910; and Ellen White’s desire that he actively assume urban evangelistic work. And always, there was the effort to make too little funds stretch to cover the many needs.
Download: McArthur's paper (MS Word)
_____________________
Dr. Douglas Morgan, Oakwood University, USA
The Significance of a Solid Start: Adventism and Race Relations, 1880-1920
Abstract: Adventism is “retarded” in race relations, wrote the noted African American author Arna Bontemps in 1950, adding that the church was “solid” on the issue in its early years but then compromised “to appease the white South.” The compromise, the resulting decades of segregation and racism, and the institutional church’s refusal to engage in the civil rights movement became the dominant storyline for Adventism and race relations. This paper examines evidence from the decades bridging the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, much of it long overlooked or downplayed, that points to a substantial strand of racial idealism, and proposes therefore that the “solid” start to which Bontemps referred deserves greater prominence in the story of Adventism and America’s foremost moral contradiction.
Download: Morgan's paper (MS Word)
_____________________
Dr. Richard Osborn, Western Association of Schools & Colleges, Accrediting Commission of Senior Colleges & Universities, USA
The Changing Ecology of Higher Education: A Threat to History Departments?
Abstract: Many higher education leaders suggest that they have never seen as much change to the ecology of higher education as during the last two years. What impact will this changing ecology have on history departments? Will the existence of traditional liberal arts departments in small faith-based residential liberal arts colleges and universities be threatened by trends toward free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), badges, certificates, competency-based education, careerism, and Do-It-Yourselfers? Richard Osborn, Vice President of the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges & Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, former Adventist education administrator, and longtime member of ASDAH, will outline some of the trends with possible implications for Adventist higher education and history departments.
Download: N/A
_____________________
Dr. Glenn O. Phillips, Morgan State University, USA
The Shaping of Early Eastern Caribbean Adventist Leadership; Charles J. B. Cave and George E. Peters, 1884 - 1920
Abstract: Seventh-day Adventist literature began arriving in the eastern Caribbean during the mid-1880’s in response to numerous requests from various residents for literature on Sabbath observance and the Second Coming of Jesus. Visiting Adventist literature evangelists quickly followed and itinerate Adventist ministers arrived later. Two young early converts were Charles Cave in Barbados and George Peters in Antigua. Both immediately dedicated their lives to serving their new faith and quickly became outstanding Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders serving until their deaths decades later. Cave was a dynamic and resourceful medical evangelist in his home land and around the eastern Caribbean; Peters was an outstanding evangelist, pastor and church administrator first in the America South and then in large urban centers including Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia. He also served in the G.C. as head of the Negro Department for twelve years and finally as a Field Secretary of the G.C. of SDA. This paper argues that the early Adventist missionaries helped to shape a distinct Seventh day Adventist Caribbean identity that appealed to many Caribbean youth. Their commitment compelled them to get prepared to be church leaders and led to their success for decades to come. Cave enrolled in the American Medical Missionary College under Dr. John Harvey Kellogg’s tutelage and received his medical degree in June 1907. Peters attended the Oakwood School in its early days before launching a very productive pastoral career across the American South.
Download: Phillips' paper (MS Word)
_____________________
Dr. Malcolm Russell, Union College, USA
Contrasting Pioneers: The Relationship between Walter Ising and Bashir Hasso
Abstract: This paper seeks to interpret the relationship between Walter Konrad Wilhelm Ising, the pioneering Adventist missionary in the Levant, and Bashir Hasso, one of his first converts. In 1911, seven young men attended Ising’s series of evangelistic meetings held in Beirut. Among them was Bashir Hasso, age twenty-one, a pharmacy student at Syria Protestant College. After studying with Ising and reading Smith’s Daniel and Revelation, Hasso was baptized, among the first converts to Adventism in the region. After finishing his studies, he returned to his family home in Mosul, ruled by the Ottoman Empire like the rest of Mesopotamia. Shortly thereafter, Ising, a German citizen, fell into British hands and spent five years as a prisoner of war. Hasso was drafted into the Ottoman (Turkish) Army and may also have been a prisoner of war. At the end of the war, Hasso returned to his family in Mosul. In 1923, Ising travelled overland to visit Mosul, where he found that Hasso had shared his faith and had even prepared seven individuals for Ising to baptize. Thereafter, Hasso would continue as a strong supporter of Adventism. During the next decades, his store in Baghdad grew to be the most successful locally-owned retailer in the new country of Iraq, and he generously donated substantial sums to the denomination both inside and outside the country. Thanks primarily to Hasso and his relatives, Adventism established indigenous roots in Iraq, the only such location in the Middle East.
Download: N/A
_____________________
Dr. Ciro Sepulveda, Oakwood University, USA
Booker T. Washington, Ellen G. White, and the Birth of the SDA Manual Training Schools.
Abstract: In the 1920s dozens of Adventist Manual Training Schools, multiplying at an exceptional pace, could be found all over the planet. In contrast, in the 1870s, when Adventist Schools were founded, they struggled to stay afloat. The few that were founded in the 1870s, 1880, and 1890s scrapped valiantly for funding, students, and teachers. Facing insurmountable odds many Adventist schools closed. This reality rubs against the idea that Ellen G. White had a divine plan, a pattern, or a blueprint, which assured the success of Adventist Education. If such a pattern existed why did the early schools and colleges of the Adventist Church wait till the end of the century to adopt it? Or even more important why did the vibrant growth of Adventist schools, the increase in students and proliferation of Adventist teachers wait for thirty years to take off? What turned Adventist Education around? This paper examines the transformation that engulfed Adventist Education at the turn of the century after it adopted the manual training schools as its model. A close look at Booker T. Washington, the first Adventist Manual Training School in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta in 1896, and the role played by Ellen White in the founding of Avondale College in Australia in 1897 - sheds light into how Adventist manual training school surfaced and powered the growth of Adventist Education.
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Dr. Ciro Sepulveda & Bernude Jesucat , Oakwood University, USA
Emmanuel Saunders: Empathetic Leadership
Abstract: This paper recites the history of Emmanuel Saunders who served as Chair of the Department of History and Political Science in the last decade of the 20th century. A native of Trinidad, Saunders would eventually attend Southern Caribbean College - following his family's conversion to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Ultimately, he would continue his education at Emmanuel Missionary College. His desire to teach at an Adventist institution and his compassion for the young people of the Church brought him to Oakwood College.
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Dr. Brian Strayer, Andrews University, USA
Little Man, Long Shadow: The Legacy of J. N. Loughborough
Abstract: John Norton Loughborough deserves to be remembered as one of our church’s outstanding pioneers for his evangelistic work in new territories, his outstanding leadership, his creative innovations, his encouragement of music, his combatting fanaticism, his promotion of spirituality, his training of future church leaders, and his interpretation of the past, Although in life he was a tiny man, after his death in 1924 he cast a long shadow that continues to shape the Adventist church today.
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Erika Weidemann, Student, Pacific Union College, USA
Ethnicity and Loyalty: The Volksdeutsche’s Relationship with the Soviet Union
Abstract: As a child, Lilly Zaft lived in a German settlement along the Dnieper River in southern Russia. However, her connections with Russia were not limited to her birthplace. Family stories tell of how her grandfather, a German landowner living in Russia, was one of a group of men sent to rescue Tsar Nicholas II. Unsuccessful, the family eventually settled in Chortitza, a German settlement established in the late 1700s and the town where Lilly was born in. Lilly, her family, and many other ethnic Germans known as the Volksdeutsche were Germans living outside the nation’s boundaries prior to the Second World War. While not all Volksdeutsche held strong ties to Germany and German culture, this paper will focus on the Black Sea German Russians from the 1930s to 1946, Volksdeutsche who retained their German language, religion, and customs. Before, during, and after World War II, these Volksdeutsche were often regarded by the Soviet Union as traitors because of their ties and their willingness to aid the Germans. This paper will highlight the Volkdeutsche in Chortitza before, during, and after the war. As seen in the saga of the Zaft family, while their German nationality had once given families such as theirs Russian land, during World War II their ethnicity made them traitors to the Soviet Union.
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Dr. Gilbert Valentine, La Siarra University, USA
How We Did Business: Conflict of Interest and General Conference Session Electoral Processes 1897 – 1926
Abstract: Despite building frustration and repeated calls for various kinds of reform in the Adventist Church of the 1890s and despite the rising incidence of conflict and competition among and between institutions, conferences and church leaders, the calls for reform went largely unheeded. This paper will argue that among the various reasons the conflict of interest inherent in the church’s election processes was a significant factor that impeded the adoption of change and made the transition to a new form of church structure more difficult than it should have been. General Conference sessions and elections were based on an electoral system that almost guaranteed the maintenance of the status quo. Sitting presidents of the General Conference exercised the power of naming the small but powerful session nominating committee. Furthermore, the small but powerful incumbent executive committee continued to function even during sessions. Early attempts at reform were stifled by this inherent conflict of interest. The changes eventually implemented in 1901 resulted from a way being found to circumvent the conflict of interest. The full democratization of the electoral process and the eventual elimination of the electoral conflict of interest took a further quarter of a century after 1901 to achieve and was not accomplished until the 1926 General Conference Session. The story of how this was achieved opens a new window into understanding the processes of organizational change in denominational history.
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