the oxford handbook of seventh-day adventism

Seventh-day Adventism is the largest religious group to have emerged out of the Millerite revivals of the 1840s. When Christ’s literal return to earth did not materialize in 1844, Adventists searched for biblical explanations. They wove together beliefs in the heavenly sanctuary, the seventh-day Sabbath, and Christian mortalism into a cohesive theology. Along with their premillennial eschatology, these beliefs served as the foundation of a new denomination under the leadership of James and Ellen White and abolitionist reformer Joseph Bates.

By the early twentieth century, the Adventist movement had spread around the globe, and had made cultural contributions to medical science, health foods, archaeology, and education.

This Oxford Handbook contains 39 original essays addressing many aspects of Adventism. Broad and comprehensive in scope, each chapter addresses the history, theology, and social aspects of Adventism, and maps the development of its most influential manifestation. Authors from around the world, and from both inside and outside the Adventist tradition, have come together to produce this authoritative work on Adventism.

Michael W. Campbell is director of the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists department of Archives, Statistics, and Research.

Christie Chui-Shan received her doctorate in religion and society from Princeton Theological Seminary. She uses history and ethnography to investigate Seventh-day Adventism in contemporary China.

David Holland is the John A. Bartlett Chair in New England Church History at Harvard Divinity School.

Denis Kaiser is Associate Professor of Church History at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University.

Nicholas Miller is Professor of Church History at Andrews University, in Berrien Springs, Michigan, where he also directs the International Religious Liberty Institute.