Three covers from the Adventist Biography Series of books available from Pacific Press (adventistbookcenter.com).
Denis Kaiser, Ph.D., has been named the new editor of the ongoing Adventist Biography Series, one of the most ambitious publishing projects in Seventh-day Adventist history. Kaiser is a specialist in Adventist history and a professor at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in Berrien Springs, Michigan. He will be assuming leadership of the series with the retirement of George Knight, Ph.D., who has served as series editor for the past 20 years.
The Adventist Biography Series is a major step forward as it provides an understanding of Seventh-day Adventist history through biographies of the prominent men and women who have shaped the church through the years from its beginnings. The first volume in the series (2003) featured James White, and the latest (2019) deals with J. N. Andrews. Other volumes in the series include Joseph Bates, J. H. Kellogg, A. T. Jones, E. J. Waggoner, Uriah Smith, and A. G. Daniels — to name only a few. Future biographies are planned for early figures such as J. V. Himes, William Miller, and W. C. White, as well as for more contemporary figures, including Edward Heppenstall, Anna Knight, and L. R. Conradi.
Denis Kaiser; photo provided by Pacific Press
The biography series is unprecedented in its breadth and scope. Volumes are based upon thorough research by some of the denomination’s foremost historians, with every biography being years in the making. The biographies portray their subjects as real people who lived and ministered in the complex realm of a developing church in a less than perfect world. The volumes also explore these people’s relationships with other strong-minded individuals who had their own views of how things ought to be done or viewed. Through the lives of these “movers and shakers” readers will gain fresh insights into what it meant on a personal level to live and work as an Adventist during different eras of the church’s evolution.
“The Adventist Biography Series is important not only as a historical record of our church’s past,” said Dale Galusha, president of Pacific Press Publishing Association, “it is also a fascinating picture of real men and women who struggled, as we do, to find their way through difficult issues and how best to deal with their brothers and sisters in the church. We can learn important lessons for our own lives as we read their experiences. This series is crucial reading for church members and leaders today as we seek a better understanding of our church’s unique message to the world.”
The Adventist Biography Series started at the Review and Herald Publishing Association, and continues on at Pacific Press.
The first 13 biographies in the Adventist Biography Series are available at Adventist Book Centers and online at www.adventistbookcenter.com/aps.