It seems a legitimate question whether this autobiographical book merits a review in Spes Christiana. It was written by an academic but that, in itself, does not mean that the book can be classified as “academic.” Nonetheless, I believe the book is of real interest to historians of Adventism – not primarily because of author’s role in recent…[Read more]

This book makes fascinating reading. In an intelligent and exciting way, the author opens the curtain to events of the past, but which resonate today. At least in the part of the world where I live, reading this book makes one wonder how seemingly serious, intelligent people can turn off common sense, ignore reality and to try to solve problems…[Read more]

Writing Adventist history from an organizational and formal perspective is very ambitious. In general Protestant mission texts, this is a rarity. In Adventist circles, I have not come across any attempt to write a monograph about the involvement of the General Conference and its secretariat in the Christian missionary enterprise. Perhaps Barry…[Read more]

Mark Young has written an important book on the centrality of the gospel for the future of theological education in evangelicalism in the United States. The book was published in January 2022 by Eerdmans. It contains three major sections, the first entitled ‘what matters,’ the second ‘past matters’ and the third ‘future matters.’ The book is wel…[Read more]

There is not a plethora of books in the area of biblical studies dedicated exclu-sively to the topic of the Satan, and even among those that have recently emerged, most simply serve as a recapitulation of the available information. Ryan Stokes’ new monograph however changes this, boldly suggesting a new hypothesis regarding the meaning of the w…[Read more]

Although the topic of Ellen White’s relationship to the Apocrypha has recently begun to be given more attention in scholarship, the topic of her interaction with and utilization of the larger non-canonical literature outside her family Bible has received virtually no academic research. As such, this article seeks to correct this silence by u…[Read more]

The Apocalypse can be considered a theology of power. This article discusses seven ethical issues related to the use and abuse of dele-gated power/authority (exousia). First and foremost, delegated authority is a relational term with dual-directional aspects. It implies that both humans and heavenly beings are morally responsible creatures.…[Read more]

As in other Scandinavian countries, the Swedish Seventh-day Adventist Church has greatly benefited from the service of women. Today, many of them are pastors, who are now treated as fully equal with their male colleagues, except with regard to ordination. For decades, however, they had been discriminated against, in terms of financial support,…[Read more]

This article studies Paul’s farewell speech to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:18‒35. It has a unique role among the many speeches of Acts because of both its content and its position in the narrative progress of the book. In contrast to most other speeches in Acts, it is in-house; it is not spoken, for instance, for evangelistic purposes or as a l…[Read more]

During Robert Pierson’s leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as General Conference President from 1966-1979 the church experienced theological turmoil in a struggle between traditionalist and progressive perspectives. Pierson perceived a major threat to the conservatism of the church in the form of “creeping liberalism.” In his strug…[Read more]