2023
ASDAH Newsletter
The Newsletter of The Association of Seventh-day Adventist Historians
Posted January 10, 2023
Editor: Sabrina Riley
Posted January 10, 2023
Editor: Sabrina Riley
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In this issue…
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Office Bearers
ASDAH editor Sabrina Riley ASDAH president-elect: Lisa Clark Diller ASDAH secretary / treasurer: Edward Allen ASDAH webmaster: Bruce Lo |
Call for Papers: 2023 ASDAH Conference
The Association of SDA Historians Solicits Panels and Individual Papers for Its 2023 Conference
Rhymes of History:
Disruption, Change over Time, and Repeating the Past
Southern Adventist University, April 13-16, 2023
We invite early career scholars, graduate students, independent scholars, high school teachers, retirees, and historians who teach at both Adventist and non-Adventist institutions of higher learning to present papers and panel discussions. Send proposals to Lisa Clark Diller at [email protected] by January 15, 2023.
Secretary's Report
By Ed Allen
ASDAH Virtual Webinar, Friday, February 25, 2022.
Amy Rosenthal began the meeting by discussing how the COVID crisis created opportunities for discovering new ways of teaching. She suggested that we tap others to teach a class or a course remotely. We can look for opportunities for collaboration and be more strategic about it.
She suggested that we have intentional conversations with students about what they can do as a history major, especially how they can make connections to relevant employment opportunities.
Lisa Diller spoke of the investment in extracurricular activities, such as trips to Washington, DC, to do original research in the GC Archives and National Archives. Such investment is taxing, but worth it.
Katherine Van Arsdale is now a digital librarian with the Adventist Digital Library. She is looking to serve history departments. She suggested an ADL repository for SDA Historians.
Someone mentioned an introductory course in the study of history and research in the context of a particular institution. A course like this could be developed for SDA history departments.
Daniel Reynaud expressed his appreciation for being able to meet with the group virtually. He would appreciate further virtual meetings such as this one. He has some resources that might be of value to American historians, such as an online course in Australian history.
There was some discussion about online resources such as the CARE online consortium.
The idea was broached of bringing in experts virtually to give expert presentations for one to three class periods.
Amy mentioned that Notre Dame University undergraduate students do not declare a major during their first year. Thus, they get to sample a large group of classes in a freshman experience.
Lisa discussed how important it is to have the best instructors teach the introductory classes, since it is in those classes that student decide which major they wish to follow.
There was some discussion of the collaboration between Southern, Southwestern, and Union College as well as the idea of greater collaboration between all Adventist schools. Ed suggested that the top-down approach to collaboration was not proving to be very effective, and that perhaps the faculties of the three schools currently in a collaboration should get together in St. Louis to get acquainted, explore collaborations, and brainstorm about how it might work.
The meeting closed with discussion about doing more of these kinds of events. Ed suggested that the executive committee of the ASDAH should consider planning another event like this one sometime in the fall as a foretaste of the meeting at Southern in the Spring of 2023. The event could include topics, such as a brief presentation of a historian’s new research, a book review, or two and then discussion about how things are going at each institution.
It was also suggested that we could create some virtual opportunities for students in history classes to present to a broader audience of peers in other Adventist schools.
Amy Rosenthal began the meeting by discussing how the COVID crisis created opportunities for discovering new ways of teaching. She suggested that we tap others to teach a class or a course remotely. We can look for opportunities for collaboration and be more strategic about it.
She suggested that we have intentional conversations with students about what they can do as a history major, especially how they can make connections to relevant employment opportunities.
Lisa Diller spoke of the investment in extracurricular activities, such as trips to Washington, DC, to do original research in the GC Archives and National Archives. Such investment is taxing, but worth it.
Katherine Van Arsdale is now a digital librarian with the Adventist Digital Library. She is looking to serve history departments. She suggested an ADL repository for SDA Historians.
Someone mentioned an introductory course in the study of history and research in the context of a particular institution. A course like this could be developed for SDA history departments.
Daniel Reynaud expressed his appreciation for being able to meet with the group virtually. He would appreciate further virtual meetings such as this one. He has some resources that might be of value to American historians, such as an online course in Australian history.
There was some discussion about online resources such as the CARE online consortium.
The idea was broached of bringing in experts virtually to give expert presentations for one to three class periods.
Amy mentioned that Notre Dame University undergraduate students do not declare a major during their first year. Thus, they get to sample a large group of classes in a freshman experience.
Lisa discussed how important it is to have the best instructors teach the introductory classes, since it is in those classes that student decide which major they wish to follow.
There was some discussion of the collaboration between Southern, Southwestern, and Union College as well as the idea of greater collaboration between all Adventist schools. Ed suggested that the top-down approach to collaboration was not proving to be very effective, and that perhaps the faculties of the three schools currently in a collaboration should get together in St. Louis to get acquainted, explore collaborations, and brainstorm about how it might work.
The meeting closed with discussion about doing more of these kinds of events. Ed suggested that the executive committee of the ASDAH should consider planning another event like this one sometime in the fall as a foretaste of the meeting at Southern in the Spring of 2023. The event could include topics, such as a brief presentation of a historian’s new research, a book review, or two and then discussion about how things are going at each institution.
It was also suggested that we could create some virtual opportunities for students in history classes to present to a broader audience of peers in other Adventist schools.
Adventist Digital Library
By Katharine Van Arsdale
Fans of Adventist history, rejoice! The Adventist Digital Library (ADL https://adventistdigitallibrary.org/) is moving to a new home. ADL’s new website launches in beta in early 2023, and it will run alongside the original site while tons of new content is being loaded. ASDAH members are invited to preview the website, explore never-before-seen material, and try out features that are available now for the first time on ADL. Please pardon our dust, as they say in the construction business, but get your hands dirty too.
A visit to https://adl.b2.adventistdigitallibrary.org/ will quickly show you what’s possible on the new digital library site. Researchers will appreciate the robust advanced and faceted search features, as well as a keyword search that returns text snippets that highlight keywords in context. An integrated citation tool allows for export directly from any work on ADL into Zotero, EndNote, and Mendeley. For users interested in leisurely browsing, the interactive homepage provides a variety of entry points. A news widget links to ADL’s social media feeds, providing a casual introduction to recently highlighted works, the latest uploads, and all the news that’s fit to print about ADL’s ongoing projects and partnerships. Featured collections also provide an entry point into a growing number of books, periodicals, photographs, and manuscript collections drawn from contributors like Andrews University’s Center for Adventist Research, the Loma Linda Archives & Special Collections, the General Conference Office of Archives, Statistics, & Research, or the EGW Estate. Recent contributors whose material is slated for immediate upload include La Sierra University and Pacific Union College, both of whom have just shared their student newspapers and yearbooks with ADL. With almost 9,000 items already online and an actively loading queue of over 100,000 items and counting, please be sure to visit the new ADL again and again to see what’s the latest and how it might fit your research needs.
As we continue to build our website, the ADL team is eager to hear from you at [email protected]. ADL’s digital librarian, Katharine Van Arsdale, is standing by to answer your questions, take your feedback, collaborate in your classroom, or offer tech support. We’re here to help and offer services that scholars of Adventist history might want; from answering general site questions to taking your content suggestions to providing a virtual classroom introduction to research on ADL, we look forward to hearing from you and working with you. Happy New Year and enjoy the new ADL!
A visit to https://adl.b2.adventistdigitallibrary.org/ will quickly show you what’s possible on the new digital library site. Researchers will appreciate the robust advanced and faceted search features, as well as a keyword search that returns text snippets that highlight keywords in context. An integrated citation tool allows for export directly from any work on ADL into Zotero, EndNote, and Mendeley. For users interested in leisurely browsing, the interactive homepage provides a variety of entry points. A news widget links to ADL’s social media feeds, providing a casual introduction to recently highlighted works, the latest uploads, and all the news that’s fit to print about ADL’s ongoing projects and partnerships. Featured collections also provide an entry point into a growing number of books, periodicals, photographs, and manuscript collections drawn from contributors like Andrews University’s Center for Adventist Research, the Loma Linda Archives & Special Collections, the General Conference Office of Archives, Statistics, & Research, or the EGW Estate. Recent contributors whose material is slated for immediate upload include La Sierra University and Pacific Union College, both of whom have just shared their student newspapers and yearbooks with ADL. With almost 9,000 items already online and an actively loading queue of over 100,000 items and counting, please be sure to visit the new ADL again and again to see what’s the latest and how it might fit your research needs.
As we continue to build our website, the ADL team is eager to hear from you at [email protected]. ADL’s digital librarian, Katharine Van Arsdale, is standing by to answer your questions, take your feedback, collaborate in your classroom, or offer tech support. We’re here to help and offer services that scholars of Adventist history might want; from answering general site questions to taking your content suggestions to providing a virtual classroom introduction to research on ADL, we look forward to hearing from you and working with you. Happy New Year and enjoy the new ADL!
Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists Update
By Dragoslava Santrac
In 2022 the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists (ESDA) editorial team had several staff changes, including a new ESDA editorial board chair and content editors, editorial consultants, and subeditors for several world divisions. Dr. Artur Stele, general vice president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, served as the ESDA Editorial Board Chair from 2015 to
to July 2022. Under his excellent leadership, the encyclopedia was launched in 2020 and has become a well-established resource.
The encyclopedia continues to grow and develop with the new ESDA editorial board chair, GC General Vice President Audrey Andersson. Of special interest to our readers in North America are the new additions to the ESDA editorial team in charge of the North American Division block of articles: Dr. Michael Campbell, Heidi Campbell, and Sabrina Riley. To learn about the entire ESDA editorial team, please see the Editors page on the ESDA website at encyclopedia.adventist.org, and note the newly added Former Editorial Staff section at the bottom of Editors page.
We also invite you to browse more than 4,000 articles and 11,000 images, and to check the new “Filter by language” option in Advanced search for easy access to articles with versions in languages other than English. There are hundreds of articles in Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, and Korean. More languages and translated articles will be added as they become available. We welcome qualified volunteers to assist us with translations and making the ESDA articles available to a greater number of people. Finally, please consider joining the wonderful community of ESDA authors, peer reviewers, and other contributors dedicated to commemorating the history of God’s Church and helping us expand and improve the encyclopedia. To contribute to ESDA, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected].
to July 2022. Under his excellent leadership, the encyclopedia was launched in 2020 and has become a well-established resource.
The encyclopedia continues to grow and develop with the new ESDA editorial board chair, GC General Vice President Audrey Andersson. Of special interest to our readers in North America are the new additions to the ESDA editorial team in charge of the North American Division block of articles: Dr. Michael Campbell, Heidi Campbell, and Sabrina Riley. To learn about the entire ESDA editorial team, please see the Editors page on the ESDA website at encyclopedia.adventist.org, and note the newly added Former Editorial Staff section at the bottom of Editors page.
We also invite you to browse more than 4,000 articles and 11,000 images, and to check the new “Filter by language” option in Advanced search for easy access to articles with versions in languages other than English. There are hundreds of articles in Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, and Korean. More languages and translated articles will be added as they become available. We welcome qualified volunteers to assist us with translations and making the ESDA articles available to a greater number of people. Finally, please consider joining the wonderful community of ESDA authors, peer reviewers, and other contributors dedicated to commemorating the history of God’s Church and helping us expand and improve the encyclopedia. To contribute to ESDA, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected].
Institutional News
General Conference Archives
General Conference Archives Monographs 1 and 2 are now available for purchase at Amazon. These short works on Adventist history are an excellent addition to the personal library of anyone interested in Adventist history.
General Conference Archives Monograph 1, “We aim at nothing less than the whole world”: The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Missionary Enterprise and the General Conference Secretariat, 1863-2019 (2021), is a comprehensive history of how the Seventh-day Adventist Church has organized for mission over its nearly 160 years of history. It especially focuses on the period from 1901-1970, which was when the church’s missionary enterprise particularly flourished. It shows the crucial role of the General Conference Secretariat in organizing, promoting, and coordinating for mission expansion around the world. It also shows how a period of decline set in after 1970, the reasons why, and argues for a revitalization of the Adventist missionary enterprise for the 21st century. It is based on detailed research in the General Conference Archives. It should be a textbook for any course on Adventist missiology and would be relevant for courses on general Adventist history. It includes a detailed timeline and is illustrated with 32 photographs. The book can be purchased for USD$ 9.99 (plus shipping) at https://amzn.to/3sxuZbc.
General Conference Archives Monograph 2, Adventist Mission in China in Historical Perspective (2022), is a survey of Adventist history in China in one hundred pages. It sketches out the main contours of Adventist development, identifies important trends, and draws conclusions about lessons that can be drawn from the history that are still applicable. This is a book for anyone wanting to get an overview of Adventist history in China, as well as for missiologists or those teaching or researching Adventist history. The book can be purchased for USD$ 6.99 (plus shipping) at https://amzn.to/3MptVyi.
General Conference Archives Monograph 1, “We aim at nothing less than the whole world”: The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Missionary Enterprise and the General Conference Secretariat, 1863-2019 (2021), is a comprehensive history of how the Seventh-day Adventist Church has organized for mission over its nearly 160 years of history. It especially focuses on the period from 1901-1970, which was when the church’s missionary enterprise particularly flourished. It shows the crucial role of the General Conference Secretariat in organizing, promoting, and coordinating for mission expansion around the world. It also shows how a period of decline set in after 1970, the reasons why, and argues for a revitalization of the Adventist missionary enterprise for the 21st century. It is based on detailed research in the General Conference Archives. It should be a textbook for any course on Adventist missiology and would be relevant for courses on general Adventist history. It includes a detailed timeline and is illustrated with 32 photographs. The book can be purchased for USD$ 9.99 (plus shipping) at https://amzn.to/3sxuZbc.
General Conference Archives Monograph 2, Adventist Mission in China in Historical Perspective (2022), is a survey of Adventist history in China in one hundred pages. It sketches out the main contours of Adventist development, identifies important trends, and draws conclusions about lessons that can be drawn from the history that are still applicable. This is a book for anyone wanting to get an overview of Adventist history in China, as well as for missiologists or those teaching or researching Adventist history. The book can be purchased for USD$ 6.99 (plus shipping) at https://amzn.to/3MptVyi.
La Sierra University
Andrew Howe served as managing editor of Higher Ground: A Centennial History of La Sierra University. It was his pleasure to work with copy editor Gary M. Ross and several dozen authors—mostly alumni or current faculty—who brought their expertise and passion to chapters focused in different content areas. Howe, Ross, and chapter authors Jonathan Butler and Katherine Koh are all alumni and either current or former professors in the history department.
Union College
Edward Allen continues as an academic Dean at Union College. He is still awaiting the publication of his chapter on the beginnings of seventh-day Sabbath observance among Adventists for the Handbook of Seventh-day Adventists to be published by Oxford University Press. He participated in editing a new book on the Sabbath that will be published soon with the tentative title of Remembering: It Matters How We Tell the Sabbath Story. Two of his papers are included in the collection. He plans to retire soon in order to devote more time to historical study and writing. Ben Tyner continues to teach in the History program. Christopher Banks recently left the International Relations program. A search has been opened for his replacement.
People News
Don McAdams
Donald R. McAdams’ much anticipated Ellen White and the Historians: A Neglected Problem and a Forgotten Answer has been published by Oak & Acorn Publishing. The heart of the book is a paper that the author wrote almost fifty years ago. It presents compelling evidence that Ellen White did not just borrow paragraphs from historians to describe what she had already seen in vision. Ellen White’s Huss manuscript shows that her history of the Hussite Reformation in Great Controversy came directly from the historian James A. Wylie. Ellen White followed his sequence, used his descriptions, copied his words, and repeated his historical errors. And then she gave her literary assistant Marian Davis the freedom to cut huge chunks from her manuscript and add significant additional history directly from Wylie.
Why, after all these years, publish this paper? The answer is embedded in the Adventist Church’s ongoing struggle to reconcile the evidence from history and science with the belief that Ellen White is authoritative in all matters. The book places McAdams’ paper before the public as a document of historical importance. Ellen White and the Historians also reprints articles by McAdams and Ben McArthur, and includes new essays by Ron Graybill and Eric Anderson, making it more than a close look at how Ellen White wrote history. It is also an account of the 20th century church struggling to defend one of its founding myths—not the inspiration of Ellen White, but her authority in all matters.
Why, after all these years, publish this paper? The answer is embedded in the Adventist Church’s ongoing struggle to reconcile the evidence from history and science with the belief that Ellen White is authoritative in all matters. The book places McAdams’ paper before the public as a document of historical importance. Ellen White and the Historians also reprints articles by McAdams and Ben McArthur, and includes new essays by Ron Graybill and Eric Anderson, making it more than a close look at how Ellen White wrote history. It is also an account of the 20th century church struggling to defend one of its founding myths—not the inspiration of Ellen White, but her authority in all matters.
Brian Strayer
Brian Strayer reports that he is currently revising and polishing his book manuscript biography of Hiram Edson for publication. His centennial history of Union Springs Academy (1921-2021) should also be published by the alumni association with the assistance of Deborah Everhart at Andrews University Press by the fall of 2023. He has recently completed articles for ESDA on Floyd Greenleaf, Hiram Edson, and the history of the Indiana Conference of SDAs.
New & Forthcoming Publications
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A. L. Chism, D. J. B. Trim, and M. F. Younker, "We aim at nothing less than the whole world": The Seventh-day Adventist Church's Missionary Enterprise and the General Conference Secretariat, 1863-2019 (General Conference Archives Monographs, 2021).
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D. J. B. Trim, Adventist Mission in China in Historical Perspective (General Conference Archives Monographs, 2022).
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Donald R. McAdams, Ellen White and the Historians: A Neglected Problem and a Forgotten Answer (Oak & Acorn Publishing, 2022).
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McAdams Grant Scholarship and Application
All scholars of Adventist history are invited to submit applications for research funding through the McAdams grant, which is intended to fund significant projects in Millerite and Adventist history that will result in publication. Scholars holding a Ph.D. in history (or related field) or who have demonstrated competence in the field of Adventist history are eligible to apply. Grants are not intended to aid research for completion of doctoral work, although funding may be available for scholars who are revising completed dissertations for publication. Grants will ordinarily be in the range of $3,000 to $10,000. Follow-up grants for large projects may be available.
Applicants should complete the application form (included here but also found at the ASDAH website, under Research Funding, which asks for a short description of the project. If a project is judged to be promising, the committee will ask for a fuller statement (1,200-2,000 words), including a proposed budget. Application letters should be sent to:
MAIL:
Steve Jones
Department of History
Southwestern Adventist University
100 W. Hillcrest, Keene, TX, 76059.
EMAIL:
[email protected]
Deadlines for consideration are April 1 and November 1. A selection committee (Steve Jones, Terrie Aamodt, Eric Anderson, and Jonathan Butler) will review applications and make recommendations.
The grant application form is below:
Applicants should complete the application form (included here but also found at the ASDAH website, under Research Funding, which asks for a short description of the project. If a project is judged to be promising, the committee will ask for a fuller statement (1,200-2,000 words), including a proposed budget. Application letters should be sent to:
MAIL:
Steve Jones
Department of History
Southwestern Adventist University
100 W. Hillcrest, Keene, TX, 76059.
EMAIL:
[email protected]
Deadlines for consideration are April 1 and November 1. A selection committee (Steve Jones, Terrie Aamodt, Eric Anderson, and Jonathan Butler) will review applications and make recommendations.
The grant application form is below:
McAdams Research Grant Application
Name__________________________
Institutional Affiliation____________________
Project Title_________________________________________________
(Please attach a 1200-1500 description of your project, its significance for Adventist history, the nature of your research, a time frame for the completion of your project, and how the grant will be used)
Amount Requested:
Estimated Breakdown of Expenses:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Will this grant be in addition to institutional funding you will receive for this project? ___________________________________________________________________
Other comments about the project you may wish to add:
Signature: _____________________
Date: _____________________