This dissertation, presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at King’s College, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, is a volume on Adventist church history. While it covers Adventist history from the Millerites to the present, it focuses specifically on Seventh-day Adventist piety and the various factors contributing to it. Adventist piety or spirituality is defined as (1) “the personal and corporate religious experiences and practices of Seventh-day Adventists;” and (2) as “the doctrinal and theological ideas which underlie such religious experiences and practices” (p. 3). Because the author sees Ellen White as the primary agent of Adventist spirituality, the first two chapters trace the early history of Ellen White’s personal religious experience and prophetic self-consciousness. The next two chapters consider the hermeneutical grounds and the theological matrix of apocalyptic spirituality within the Adventist context. Chapter five, the main chapter of the book, studies the institutional triangle of Adventist spirituality: Publishing, health reform, and education. The final chapter provides a summary of the main points identifying the nature of Adventist spirituality.

In his study of the institutional triangle up to 1915, the author concluded that education, publishing and the medical infrastructure were the effective agents in integrating Adventist theology with Adventist spirituality. As a result of this integration, he believes, Adventist spirituality was the pursuit of a fulfilling and integrated life within a world that was nearing its cataclysmic end (p. 266). Furthermore, he notes that Adventist lifestyle and liturgical practices were the expression of a spirituality that was grounded in a “Thus says the Lord” (p. 277).

While the author’s discussion of Adventist spirituality is interesting and helpful his treatment of Miller’s hermeneutics is less so. He describes Miller’s hermeneutics as a fully-fledged proof-text exegesis which took little or no account of the variety of biblical genres or the literary and historical context (p. 106-7). The same type of treatment is meted out to Adventist exegesis. However, he seems to admit that “Adventism stood in a historical continuity with the Christian tradition as to its historicist hermeneutic of biblical prophecy” (footnote 69, p. 293).

This volume will be of interest to every Adventist historian and those interested in Adventist history and the role of Ellen White in the church.