In this Pentecost 2025 year and beyond, Adventist scholars can “witness” by accurately and dispassionately sharing with other scholars who Adventists are and what they believe.

Over the past 15 years, a steady uptick of Adventist historians have regularly participated in meetings of the American Society of Church History, one of the premier academic organizations in the world for the study of religious history. “The first paper session I organized about Adventism was in 2015, and in the intervening time, we’ve had over a dozen Adventist academics giving papers at annual meetings,” said Michael Campbell, NAD director of Archives, Statistics, and Research. 

This year’s meeting ran from January 3-6, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois. Themed “Legends,” it featured research by eight Adventist scholars, including two panel sessions focused on Ellen White and the Adventist experience. As Adventists engage with the broader academic world, their research helps church members and non-members better appreciate the Adventist story and its unique contributions to the larger American religious landscape. 

On Friday afternoon, Heidi Olson Campbell (PhD candidate, Baylor University) presented on “Trouble in Paradise: Anti-Trintarianism and Deconstructing the Queen of Heaven, 1558-1625,” in the “Early Modern and Modern Spiritualities” session. Nathan Hilton, from Harvard University’s Afro-Latin American Research Institute, spoke on “A Christian Death by Obeah: Protestant Disaffections, Afro-Caribbean Religion and the Mythical Death of John Wesley Manns.” Finally, Michael W. Campbell responded to Elesha Coffman’s Turning Points in American Church History (Baker Academic, 2024). On Saturday evening, the North American Division Department of Archives, Statistics, and Research hosted a dinner to facilitate camaraderie and goodwill among Adventists participating in these meetings.

On Sunday, there were two panel sessions at ASCH for the first time. The first, titled “Adventism from the Outside: Demythologizing Adventist Legends,” was chaired by Heidi Campbell with a response by John Corrigan (Florida State University). Presenters included 

• Kevin Burton (Andrews University), who discussed the intersection of Adventism and the abolitionist movement;
• Jeffrey Rosario (Loma Linda University), who argued that some leading atheists not only recognized the dangers of American imperialism and the threat against religious freedom but also appreciated the Adventist critique; and
• Shawn Brace, who suggested that early Seventh-day Adventism’s anti-creedism was mostly external and ambiguous, as internally, they were clear on what they believed.

The second panel, titled “The Legend of Ellen White, An American Woman Religious Leaders: New Perspectives, Reappraisals, and Assessments,” offered context for Ellen White within the larger framework of American religious women leaders. It was chaired by Abner Hernandez (Andrews University), with Andrea Turpin (Baylor University) as the respondent. Presenters included

• Denis Kaiser (Andrews University), who shared that Ellen White’s multifaceted perspective and experience of inspiration did not easily align with contemporary theories, and she was frequently misunderstood by both her critics and defenders;
• Michael W. Campbell, who highlighted how Ellen White’s flexible view of inspiration allowed her to be proactive and ahead of her peers, notably in her conviction that her writings should be translated into many languages during her lifetime; and
• David Holland (Harvard University), who argued that because Adventism was so small and Ellen White so ordinary and devoid of scandals, scholarly interest in her has been diminutive compared to many of her peers

Both of these panels were well-attended, with the strongest participation by Adventist scholars overall at the 2025 gathering. It is hoped that this increase in Adventist scholarship will foster greater interest in that significance of Adventism and its history among Adventists and other scholars. 

John Corrigan, comparing Adventist studies with Mormon scholarship, particularly the work of Jan Shipps in the 1980s, noted that “when people started studying Mormonism seriously, using archives,” it helped place Mormonism as being more central to American religious culture and history. He wondered “if the study of Adventism might be at a similar place at this moment.” Corrigan added, “I can now see things differently in American religious history when I use an Adventist lens.”

Corrigan concluded that, as this critical mass of Adventist scholarship takes off, it will “offer the potential to see American religious history different and [examine] issues Adventists were concerned with, [as well as] frictions between Adventism and other groups.” 

Presentation Abstracts

Friday, January 3, 2025:

“Turning Points as Pedagogy” — panelist Michael Campbell

https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/events/29109/sessions/122037/download

“Early Modern and Modern Spiritualities” — panelist Heidi Olson Campbell

https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/events/29109/sessions/122042/download

Sunday, January 5, 2025:

Panel 1 — “Adventism from the Outside: Demythologizing Adventist Legends”

https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/events/29109/sessions/122128/download

Panel 2 — “The Legend of Ellen White, An American Woman Religious Leaders: New Perspectives, Reappraisals, and Assessments”

https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/events/29109/sessions/122132/download

~This article was edited and adapted from an original article written for the Adventist historians' newsletter.