Seventh-day Adventism in Crisis: Gender and Sectarian Change in an Emerging Religion [Paperback]

Laura L. Vance (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0252067444 | ISBN-13: 978-0252067440

As a "remnant of the remnant", Seventh-day Adventism's early years were distinguished by the leadership of women, most prominently the visionary and prophet Ellen White. However, after 1915 the number of Adventist women in leadership began a dramatic and uninterrupted decline that was not challenged until the 1980s. Tracing the views of the church through its official and unofficial publications and through interviews with dozens of Adventist informants, Laura Vance reveals a significant shift around the turn of the century in women's roles advocated by the church: from active participation in the functioning, spiritual leadership, teaching, and evangelism of Adventism to an insistence on homemaking as a woman's sole proper vocation. These changes in attitude, Vance maintains, are inextricably linked to Adventism's shift from sect to church: in effect, to its maturation as a denomination. Vance suggests that the reemergence of women in positions of influence within the church in recent decades should be viewed not as a concession to secular feminist developments but rather as a return to Adventism's earlier conception of gender roles. By examining changes in the movement's relationship with the world and with its own history, "Seventh-day Adventism in Crisis" offers a probing examination of how a sect founded on the leadership of women came to define women's roles in ways that excluded them from active public participation and leadership in the church.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This fine piece of scholarship presents a systematic application of sociological models to a movement whose heart and soul is sectarian. In examining Seventh-Day Adventisms history and development from its inception as a postmillennialist movement in the 1800s to its current status as a faith tradition with a distinctive identity, Vance (psychology/sociology, Georgia Southwestern State Univ.) has crafted a remarkably readable book of religio-sociological research. Vance argues that Adventisms move from sectarianism to institutionalization has succeeded through the creation of physical structures that reinforce its unique identity while meeting temporal needs that allow for a more accommodating response to the world. This thesis is borne out by Vances examination of family structure, theology, and the development of the movement. One area of unique identification for Adventists is that of gender roles, and it is here, she finds, that Adventism has the greatest opportunity to alter the boundaries of church hierarchy not only for itself but for the Christian community as a whole. Highly recommended.Sandra Collins, Univ. of Pittsburgh
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"This fine piece of scholarship presents a systematic application of sociological models to a movement whose heart and soul is sectarian... A remarkably readable book of religio-sociological research... Highly recommended." - Library Journal "A concise historical/sociological study of an important but often neglected denomination." - Choice "In the first part of her book, Vance gives an overview of Adventist origins ,beliefs, organization and contemporary controversies. This concise, scholarly summary alone makes the book worthwhile... Well researched and clearly ... written, Vance's work makes an outstanding contribution to the understanding not only of Adventism but also of the dynamics of sectarian development and interaction with the wider society." - David F. White, Christian Century "A valuable case study of the intersection of women and religion, of the leadership of women in marginal religions, and of the importance of gender to the preservation of sectarian authority and distinction." -- Religious Studies Review "Will surely be of interest to scholars who study religion, gender, and social change... Provides a holistic analysis of a religious tradition that has undergone great change since its emergence and continues to redefine itself as we enter the next millennium." - John P. Bartkowski, American Journal of Sociology ADVANCE PRAISE "A skillful and rich telling of the Adventist story, as valuable for its concise introduction to the history of the movement as for its examination of current struggles. This is an important contribution to how we understand what it means to be sectarian."- Nancy Tatom Ammerman, author of Bible Believers and Baptist Battles "This is a prodigious work of scholarship. As [Vance] is not an Adventist herself and has no Adventist background, I find her understanding of the inner workings of Adventism truly amazing."- Roger L. Dudley, Institute of Church Ministry, Andrews University

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252067444
• ISBN-13: 978-0252067440
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,124,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sociologist asks why Adventists won't ordain women, April 16, 1999

By 

Graeme Sharrock "sans samsara" (Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seventh-day Adventism in Crisis: Gender and Sectarian Change in an Emerging Religion (Paperback)

Social science Professor Laura Vance tells the amazing story how Seventh-day Adventism, which was founded by Ellen Harmon White, the most prolific woman writer and preacher of the nineteenth-century, moved in 100 years from an egalitarian social ethic to the almost total exclusion of women from its administration. Since White's death, Adventism has moved toward the mainstream of American religion, adopting the social conservatism as well as the theological positions of evangelicalism, and systematically excluding women from leadership positions. In contrast to the early Adventist pioneers, who favored various reform movements such as anti-slavery and women's health issues, American church bureaucrats have narrowed their social gaze and moved to the right in their implicit political stance. This trend, which actively favored public evangelism over social reform and suppressed women's participation in leadership, has since the late 1970's been challenged by new voices calling for the ordination of women to the gospel ministry and other leadership positions in the SDA church. In addition, the international growth of the membership of the SDA church, adding millions of members in countries where patriarchialism and traditional power structures favor men has helped keep women out of power. The answer, says Vance, is not for Adventist leaders to imagine they are fighting a battle against feminism or liberalism but to embrace once again the diversity and openness of its early history, an Edenic time when women and men sang and preached side-by-side, when the male leaders were not afraid of the visionary power of women but practiced a co-operative type of gender equality.

Vance's book comes as the fourth in a series of comprehensive non-denominational interpretations of Adventism which began in the 1980's with Ron Numbers and Jonathan Butler, "The Disappointed: Millerism and Millenarianism in the Nineteenth-Century" (Indiana University Press, 1989, Malcom Bull and Keith Lockhart's "Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream" (Harper and Row, 1989) and Michael Pearson, Millenial Dreams and Moral Dilemmas: Seventh-day Adventists and Contemporary Ethics" (Cambridge Unversity Press, 1990). Vance's book, written largely from the perspective of gender issues, gathers from a hundred years of the "Adventist Review" and from more recent publications such as "Spectrum".

The style of Professor Vance's book, written after extensive field research in actual Adventist congregations and at Walla Walla College, will appeal to both social scientists studying the religious phenomenon of Adventism, and to SDA members, clergy and teachers who wish to view themselves in the words of an intelligent and sympathetic outsider. Teachers of American religious movements will find this book the best general introduction to Adventism for students who are also interested in women's issues, social science theory and religion. Highly recommended.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars American Journal of Sociology, September 28, 2000

By 

"americanjoursociology" (Mississippi State University) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seventh-day Adventism in Crisis: Gender and Sectarian Change in an Emerging Religion (Paperback)

In Seventh Day Adventism in Crisis, Laura Vance has produced a monograph that will surely be of interest to scholars who study religion, gender, and social change. Consistent with much current gender scholarship on the emergence of theologically conservative religions, Vance's study reveals how differently history reads when gender becomes a central analytical category for examining religious transformation. This volume aims to address several interrelated questions, including: How did a religious movement in which women initially wielded visionary leadership eventually come to deny women access to many of its most powerful institutional positions? How have large-scale social changes influenced current debates about "women's place" within contemporary Adventism? In fixing her attention on such issues, Vance produces a book that is not simply a historiographical account of shifting gender relations with Adventism - though a focus on that topic alone would have been quite an accomplishment. Rather, recognizing that the best historical research informs contemporary predicaments, Vance combines a backward-glancing eye attuned to Adventism's past with an insightful investigation of present-day gender relations within this religious denomination.

Seventh-Day Adventism in Crisis begins by recounting the historical origins of Adventism, a sectarian religion that emerged during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. Special attention is paid to the apparently prophetic visions and writings of Ellen White, an early Adventist thought to have received direct revelation from God, detailing the divine mission of this nascent religious movement. Much of the first half of the book then proceeds to analyze the distinctive - and often paradoxical - facets of Adventist doctrine and practice. For example, Adventists are generally committed to the infallibility of the Bible; yet, at the same time, members of this religious group conceive of divine revelation as progressively unfolding into "present truth." Moreover, Adventism has long decried the excesses of "the world" (e.g., gambling, movie going, and various dietary indulgences) even as it has implored its adherents to affiliate with unbelievers for the purpose of evangelism. The Adventist challenge of finding one's place "in but not of the world" is very similar to that faced by other theologically conservative religions. Yet, perhaps the greatest Adventist contradiction entails the eventual erosion of women's leadership authority within a religious denomination whose core doctrine was initially defined - or, better, divined --- by a female prophet. In rendering her portrait of Adventism, past and present, Vance avoids homogenizing this diverse and changing religious tradition. Her careful analytical approach reveals how internal cleavages among Adventists themselves emerged historically and continue to surface in light of this religion's conceptualization of an evolving "present truth." Consequently, the first half of Vance's book evenhandedly combines rich idiographic accounts of particular events in Adventist history (e.g., chaps. 1 and 4) with broader analyses of this religion's theological presuppositions and political organization (e.g., chaps. 2 and 3).

Part 2 of this volume focuses on Adventist responses to a series of recent social changes - shifting definitions of gender and sexuality, the recent rise of women's labor force participation, and controversies over women's ordination to the ministry in many Protestant churches. Because Vance has detailed the particularities of this religious subculture so well in the book's first section, she moves deftly through Adventist responses to these various issues - aided, where appropriate, by back references to section one. For example, Vance examines contemporary Adventist support for gender equity in the workplace with an eye on the post-1870 writings by Ellen White, who defended the payment of equitable wages to female employees and became a champion of women's public-sphere participation in Social Gospel movements. Moreover, current Adventist controversies over women's ordination are understood in light of the rich cultural tradition of Adventism. This multilayered tradition contains strands of early Adventist egalitarianism interwoven with more recent accommodations to secularized visions of gender difference. This reading of structural change and ideological diversity within Adventism effectively challenges those who would equate religious conviction - and especially theological conservatism - with an unreflective preservation of the status quo.

Vance has collected and mined a vast array of data to conduct this study. She draws from archival sources, secondary historical treatments, and Adventist pastoral texts. She has also gathered primary data using participant-observation, in-depth interview, and survey techniques. Given the conceptual breadth and methodological triangulation evidenced in this volume, some readers might charge that Vance simply attempts to cover too much ground in one monograph. I do not share that criticism. Although it is easy to envision other works--for example, a more ethnographically focused monograph-that could effectively build on the material in the present volume, this book draws together coherent and compelling narratives from these various data sources. As a result, Seventh-Day Adventism in Crisis provides a holistic analysis of a religious tradition that has undergone great change since its emergence and continues to redefine itself as we enter the next millennium.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Library Journal, March 1, 2000

By 

Sandra Collins (University of Pittsburgh) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seventh-day Adventism in Crisis: Gender and Sectarian Change in an Emerging Religion (Paperback)

This fine piece of scholarship presents a systematic application of sociological models to a movement whose heart and soul is sectarian. In examining Seventh-day Adventism's history and development from its inception as a postmillennialist movement in the 1800s to its current status as a faith tradition with a distinctive identity, Vance (psychology/sociology, Georgia Southwestern State University) has crafted a remarkably readable book of religio-sociological research. Vance argues that Adventism's move from sectarianism to institutionalization has succeeded through the creation of physical structures which reinforce its unique identity while meeting temporal needs that allow for a more accommodating response to the world. This thesis is borne out by Vance's examination of family structure, theology, and the development of the movement. One area of unique identification for Adventists is that of gender roles, and it is here, she finds, that Adventism has the greatest opportunity to alter the boundaries of church hierarchy not only for itself but for the Christian community as a whole. Highly recommended.