From Rural Populism to Practical Christianity : the Modernisation of the Seventh- Day Adventist Movement / Du populisme rural au christianisme pratique. La modernisation du mouvement Adventiste du septième jour. - article ; n°1 ; vol.60, pg 109-130

Robin Theobald.

Description

Archives des sciences sociales des religions - Année 1985 - Volume 60 - Numéro 1 - Pages 109-130
22 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Archives-des-sciences-sociales-des-religions
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1985
• Nombre de lectures: 14
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Robin Theobald
From Rural Populism to Practical Christianity : the Modernisation
of the Seventh- Day Adventist Movement / Du populisme rural
au christianisme pratique. La modernisation du mouvement
Adventiste du septième jour.
In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 60/1, 1985. pp. 109-130.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Theobald Robin. From Rural Populism to Practical Christianity : the Modernisation of the Seventh- Day Adventist Movement /
Du populisme rural au christianisme pratique. La modernisation du mouvement Adventiste du septième jour. In: Archives des
sciences sociales des religions. N. 60/1, 1985. pp. 109-130.
doi : 10.3406/assr.1985.2369
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0335-5985_1985_num_60_1_2369Arch Sc soc des Rel. 1985 60/1 juillet-septembre) 109 130
Robin THEOBALD
FROM RURAL POPULISM TO PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY
THE MODERNISATION OF
THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST MOVEMENT*
Le mouvement Adventiste du septième jour pour origine la va
gue de spéculations pré-millénaristes qui déferlé sur les petites
communautés agricoles de certaines régions Amérique du nord
dans les années 1840
Le mouvement pour vocation avouée de prévenir le monde de la
menace de destruction qui pèse sur lui ainsi que de le préparer au
retour imminent du Christ Pour acquitter de cette tâche il dis
pose un réseau évangélisation actif dans presque tous les pays
du monde Mais Adventismo est aussi lancé dans une série ac
tivités telles que la réforme de la santé éducation les loisirs il
propose des services conseil en matière de mariage de famille de
relations personnelles de choix de carrière et sur la plupart des
questions relatives au comportement humain
Cet article est un essai explication de cet engagement dans des
activités séculières en termes de besoin comment un mouvement
origine essentiellement rurale et destiné une population rurale
accommode-t-il de la transformation de Amérique du nord en
une société industrielle urbaine
Sont examinées ici les tensions possibles entre le souci annoncer
la fin du monde et engagement en faveur de amélioration de la
vie ici bas ainsi que les conséquences prévisibles entraînent ces
tensions pour le développement ultérieur du mouvement
INTRODUCTION
The Seventh-day Adventist SDA movement is ostensibly dedicated to
warning the peoples of the world of the imminent return of Christ an event that
will be accompanied by the total destruction of the world and all work
within it In order to accomplish this end the movement has established over the
sonal research should grant like without to express which my gratitude much of the to the research Social on Science which Research this paper Council is based U.K. could for not the have per
been carried out
109 DE SCIENCES SOCIALES DES RELIGIONS ARCHIVES
last hundred years global organization with branches in all but few coun
tries But in addition to its evangelistics apparatus Adventism has become invol
ved in wide range of ancillary activities In 1975 for example apart from its
1800 churches the movement was operating over 4000 schools 73 colleges
universities 32 schools of nursing 136 hospitals 261 dispensaries and clinics
28 food factories and other institutions such as orphanages and retirement ho
mes In that same year the SDA movement had over 430 million dollars inves
ted in medical facilities alone Confronted with such an extensive this-
worldly presence Edwin Scott observation that While expecting
kingdom of God from the heavens Adventists work diligently for one on
seems particularly apposite 2)
It is of course by no means unusual for protestant movements especially
American ones whilst apparently pre-occupied with other-worldly goals to dis
play an impressive this-worldly presence Nonetheless for movement which
still formally commits itself to belief in the imminent end of things such exten
sive this-worldly involvement particularly in institutions and activities which
are directed to the preservation and improvement of mortal existence would
seem to pose something of paradox The aim of what follows is to shed some
light on this paradox and in the process to examine some of the major changes
that have taken place within the SDA movement since it first emerged in the
1840s Basically it will be argued that these changes need to be understood
against the background of the modernisation of North American society The
term modernisation has been the subject of extensive discussion within the so
cial sciences and it is neither necessary nor desirable that we embark upon
protracted review in this context For our purposes the most significant fea
tures of the process of modernisation are urbanisation and social mobilisation
The United States during the first half of the XIXth century was predominant
ly rural society based upon small farmer economy organised around small
face-to-face communities By the turn of the century the axis of the US economy
had shifted to industry and to the city Into the northern cities poured millions
of immigrants whose background language and culture divided them not only
from their predominantly Anglo-Saxon predecessors but also from eachother
In the absence at that stage of the modernisation process of an overarching ci
vic culture the burden of integration in the urban context fell heavily on the
market Social mobilisation in mass markets is probably the most important
feature of modernisation in societies like the United States which followed
laissez-faire capitalist route to development This means that in the absence
of countervailing tendencies most obviously extensive state involvement in
economy and society the logic of the market penetrates particularly rapidly
all organisations and agencies and not just those manifestly established for the
pursuit of profit
Having committed itself during its formative years to mass evangelism the
SDA movement half century later had to come to terms with the fact that so
far as the USA was concerned the overwhelming majority of these masses were
now located within an urban context We shall see that in the process of adap
ting to the urban market and the perceived needs of would-be converts Adven
tism felt constrained to update to refine to modernize its message in order to
make it relevant to individual needs in the sense of the needs of individuals fa
cing the vicissitudes of existence in an urban industrial society
110 THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST MOVEMENT
This process of adaptation to the market situation especially to competi
tion from secular agencies is of course by no means peculiar to Seventh-day
Adventism and to some degree is feature of all religious movements which
must operate in liberal capitalist context What is peculiar about Adven
tism is that for historical reasons to be examined the fundamenta
list core has much greater degree of salience of visibility than is the case with
the mainstream protestantism with which leading Adventists have latterly at
tempted rapprochement The persistence of this hardcore fundamentalism it
will be argued still determines to considerable degree the type of convert
which the movement attracts and as consequence the trajectory of its future
development In order to understand the basic changes which have taken place
in Adventism it will be necessary first to sketch the formative deve
lopment as well as outline the basic contours of its doctrine
II THE EMERGENCE AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST
MOVEMENT
The SDA movement has its origins in the millennial Millerite movement
which developed in the 1840s in the eastern United States William Miller
Baptist preacher of Low Hampton New York had prophesied the second co
ming of Christ some time in 1843 basing his calculations on the apocalyptic
books of Daniel and Revelation especially on the verse in Daniel Unto two
thousand and three hundred days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
teachings were taken up and publicized by growing numbers of people until at
the climax of the movement when expectations had come to focus upon Octo
ber 1844 there were over 100000 firm believers with perhaps million or more
sceptically expectant With the non-materialisation of the advent the Mille
rite movement virtually disintegrated handful of surviving factions each at
tempted to explain the apparent failure of prophecy From one of these factions
was to emerge the Seventh-day Adventist movement
Immediately after what became known as the Great Disappointment two
Millerites Hiram Edson and O.R.L Crosier developed re-interpretation of
the Daniel prophecy which came to provide rallying point for other Millerites
Edson and Crosier maintained that the cleansing of the sanctuary referred not
to an event which was to take place on earth but to an act of ministration in the
heavenly sanctuary which Christ had entered on the appointed day October 22
1844 The timing of the prophecy had been right after all the Millerites had
simply misunderstood it
crucial stage in the development of the S