Technological developments on many fronts have created in our society some extremely difficult moral predicaments. Previous generations have not had to face the dilemmas posed by, for example, the availability of safe abortions, sperm banks and prostoglandins. They have not had to come to terms with an unchecked exploitation of natural resources heralding imminent ecological crisis, or, worst of all, with the recognition that only in this current generation have people the capacity to destroy themselves and their environment. This book seeks to show how, and why, Seventh-day Adventism has addressed these moral issues, and that the ethical questions arising from these issues are especially relevant to the Adventist Church and its development. Dr Pearson looks specifically at the moral decisions Adventists have made in the area of human sexuality, on such issues as contraception, abortion, the role and status of women, divorce and homosexuality, from the beginnings of the movement to 1985.

Seventh-day Adventism was born as a radical millenarian sect in nineteenth-century America. It has since spread across the world, achieving far more success in Latin America, Africa, and Asia than in its native land. In what seems a paradox, Adventist expectation of Christ’s imminent return has led the denomination to develop extensive educational, publishing, and health systems. Increasingly established within a variety of societies, Adventism over time has modified its views on many issues and accommodated itself to the “delay” of the Second Advent. In the process, it has become a multicultural religion that nonetheless reflects the dominant influence of its American origins. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Seventh-Day Adventists covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 600 cross-referenced entries on key people, cinema, politics and government, sports, and critics of Ellen White. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Seventh-day Adventism.

An in-depth history of selected New Religions that highlights the roles of women in their founding and continual practice Women in New Religions offers an engaging look at women’s evolving place in the birth and development of new religious movements. It focuses on four disparate new religions—Mormonism, Seventh-day Adventism, The Family International, and Wicca—to illuminate their implications for gender socialization, religious leadership and participation, sexuality, and family ideals. Religious worldviews and gender roles interact with one another in complicated ways. This is especially true within new religions, which frequently set roles for women in ways that help the movements to define their boundaries in relation to the wider society. As new religious movements emerge, they often position themselves in opposition to dominant society and concomitantly assert alternative roles for women. But these religions are not monolithic: rather than defining gender in rigid and repressive terms, new religions sometimes offer possibilities to women that are not otherwise available. Vance traces expectations for women as the religions emerge, and transformation of possibilities and responsibilities for women as they mature. Weaving theory with examination of each movement’s origins, history, and beliefs and practices, this text contextualizes and situates ideals for women in new religions. The book offers an accessible analysis of the complex factors that influence gender ideology and its evolution in new religious movements, including the movements’ origins, charismatic leadership and routinization, theology and doctrine, and socio-historical contexts. It shows how religions shape definitions of women’s place in a way that is informed by response to social context, group boundaries, and identity.

This Dictionary provides a unique and groundbreaking survey of both the historical and contemporary interrelations between ethics, theology and society. In over 250 separately-authored entries, a selection of the world's leading scholars from many disciplines and many denominations present their own views on a wide range of topics. Arranged alphabetically, entries cover all aspects of philosophy, theology, ethics, economics, politics and government. Each entry includes: * a concise definition of the term * a description of the principal ideas behind it * analysis of its history, development and contemporary relevance * a detailed bibliography giving the major sources in the field The entire field is prefaced by an editorial introduction outlining its scope and diversity. Selected entries include: Animal Rights * Capital Punishment * Communism * Domestic Violence * Ethics * Evil * Government * Homophobia * Humanism * Liberation Theology * Politics * Pornography * Racism * Sexism * Society * Vivisection * Women's Ordination

Spes Christiana is the journal of the European Adventist Society of Theology and Religious Studies (EASTRS). It contains articles from all subdisciplines of theology - Biblical Studies, Church History, Systematic Theology, Practical Theology, and Mission Studies, as well as auxiliary disciplines. Major fields and themes of publication include all that are either related to Adventism in Europe or researched by European Adventist scholars.

The values and institutions of the Christian Church remained massively dominant in early modern English society and culture, but its theology, liturgy and unity were increasingly disputed. The period was overall one of institutional conformity and individual diversity: the centrality of Christian religion was universally acknowledged; yet the nature of religion and of religious observance in England changed dramatically during the Reformation, Renaissance, and Restoration. Further, because English culture was still biblical and English society was still religious, the state involved itself in ecclesiastical matters to an extraordinary extent. Successive political and ecclesiastical administrations were committed to helping each other, but their attempts to mould religious beliefs and customs were effectively attempts to modify English culture. Church and state were complementary, yet because they were ultimately distinct estates, they could work only, at best, uneasily in partnership with each other. Cultural output is thus an ideal lens for examining this period of tension in the church, state and society of England. The case studies contained in this volume examine the intersection of politics, religion and society over the entire early modern period, through distinct examples of cultural texts produced and cultural practices followed.

"Adventism and the American Republic tells how their convictions led Adventist adherents to become champions of religious liberty and the separation of church and state - all in the interest of delaying the fulfillment of a prophecy that foresees the abolition of most freedoms. Through publication of Liberty magazine, lobbying of legislatures, and pressing court cases, Adventists have been libertarian activists for more than a century, and in recent times this stance has translated into strong resistance to the political agendas of Christian conservatives." "Drawing on Adventist writings that have never been incorporated into a scholarly study, Morgan shows how the movement has struggled successfully to maintain its identifying beliefs - with some modifications - and how their sectarian exclusiveness and support of liberty has led to some tensions and inconsistencies."--BOOK JACKET.

What are the relations between sociology and the different religions--Christianity with its various branches, Judaism, Islam, Oriental religions, sects and New Religious Movements? That is the question which this work, conceived on the occasion of the XXVth Conference of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion/Société Internationale de Sociologie des Religions (SISR), wishes to clarify.The book retraces the varied and troubled history of these relations and also reveals how in opening up its research to other religions besides the Christian, sociology is forced to redefine the very object of its field of study. What is the religious? This question, which until recently was considered impertinent, informs this book throughout.If confronts the necessity of rethinking theories and methodological approaches which, constructed in the context of 19th and early 20th century Western Europe, prove to be rather inadequate for encompassing contemporary religious phenomena and religious manifestations in other contexts. To these new theoretical and methodological demands is added, for the sociologist, a deontological imperative, which takes on all the more importance today as the religious provokes passionate social debate.

Tanzanian Adventism exemplifies one of the most fascinating shifts in the history of religions: the growth of Christianity in Africa. Most striking in this account is the analysis of a minority denomination's transformation to a veritable "folk church."

How can a movement founded on the prophecies and visions of one woman, and reliant in its early stages on the pastoral leadership, teaching, and proselytizing of many others, come to define women's roles in ways that exclude them from active public participation and leadership in the church?