The Pocket Ellen G. White Dictionary is, as the title indicates, a small and handy reference tool for basic information about the life and writings of Ellen G. White. It is a welcome resource that helps to better understand some of the terms and concepts she used. It includes basic terms of reference and jargon she used but also covers important people with whom she interacted and places she visited and worked at during her lifetime. It is illuminating to read the original meaning of such words as “groggery,” “humors,” “intercourse,” “illy,” “manliness,” “womanliness,” “panoply,” “petulant/petulance,” or “Rivulet Society” as White used them, to mention but a few.

The first part of the book has three short introductory chapters: “Who was Ellen G. White?,” “Ellen G. White and the Bible,” and “How to Interpret Ellen G. White’s Writings.” This is followed by 510 short articles in alphabetical order and a short chronology on the most important dates in White’s life and ministry. Due to the nature and title of the book, the entries are rather short; many of them are only one or two lines long. The brevity of the articles is the great strength of the book, making it a readable, ready reference. At the same time, the brevity is also its deficiency.

The entry on the 1919 GC Session is found under “Bible Conference, 1919” whereas the 1888 GC Session is listed under “General Conference Session of 1888.” A cross-reference and even a separate entry on Minneapolis would have been helpful. Similarly, there are no entries for “Galatians” or “conservative.” And entries on higher criticism, criticism of the Bible, and historical criticism are missing. Only a very brief entry on “criticism” is listed, which deals with a critical spirit. In the entry on “Inerrancy,” a term White never used herself, the authors claim that “Ellen G. White made it clear that both the Bible and her writings have minor discrepancies in details that to not pertain to the focal message of revelation that was transmitted by the human messenger (see 1SM 38, 39).” Such a brief description and terse explanation leaves more questions open than it really answers and it reveals the dilemma and deficiency of such a short reference work. Readers who want more information will do well to consult the more comprehensive and detailed, albeit not as handy, The Ellen G. White Encyclopedia, edited by Denis Fortin, Jerry Moon, Michael W. Campbell, and George R. Knight (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2013). These quibbles aside, the book deserves wide distribution and should be on the desk of every church member interested in a brief overview of Ellen G. White and her writings.