https://hcommons.org/groups/spes-christiana-journal/ Activity feed for the group, Spes Christiana (journal). Sun, 05 Apr 2026 17:00:00 -0400 https://buddypress.org/?v=10.6.0 en-US 30 hourly 2 0a4689757b58576788534f7022a15ba2 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1876996/ Mon, 19 Feb 2024 03:00:55 -0500 For many Christians, the two words in the English language that don’t seem possible to combine are “faithful” and “disobedience.” For Adventists especially, who have too often grown up hearing an emphasis solely on obeying the commandments of God, such ideas are all too unthinkable. If God says it, the saying goes, that settles it. Yet, Ellen Whi…[Read more]

]]> 0 74740e15cdcdfd4b14a546b58d5b5fa2 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1850733/ Fri, 30 Jun 2023 02:24:08 -0400 Casebolt’s book, Child of the Apocalypse: Ellen White, brings a new hypothe-sis to the field of Ellen White studies by claiming that twelve-year-old Ellen Harmon was not consciously prevaricating but was consistently wrong and deluded in an objectively clinical sense. While other Ellen White critics have doubted her genuineness and t…[Read more]

]]> 0 1986be7ee87626b4c94a3e570b2c9923 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1825766/ Fri, 09 Dec 2022 02:29:09 -0500 It seems a legitimate question whether this autobiographical book merits a review in Spes Christiana. It was written by an academic but that, in itself, does not mean that the book can be classified as “academic.” Nonetheless, I believe the book is of real interest to historians of Adventism – not primarily because of author’s role in recent…[Read more]

]]> 0 36941a068a3c36b0e42202b5c74e4e5d https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1825596/ Thu, 08 Dec 2022 02:23:50 -0500 Writing Adventist history from an organizational and formal perspective is very ambitious. In general Protestant mission texts, this is a rarity. In Adventist circles, I have not come across any attempt to write a monograph about the involvement of the General Conference and its secretariat in the Christian missionary enterprise. Perhaps Barry…[Read more]

]]> 0 a44282515ec541026f1d8a652279cf60 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1825595/ Thu, 08 Dec 2022 02:23:50 -0500 Mark Young has written an important book on the centrality of the gospel for the future of theological education in evangelicalism in the United States. The book was published in January 2022 by Eerdmans. It contains three major sections, the first entitled ‘what matters,’ the second ‘past matters’ and the third ‘future matters.’ The book is wel…[Read more]

]]> 0 29f56d0496c7abffaed22b940c6327bc https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1825594/ Thu, 08 Dec 2022 02:23:49 -0500 There is not a plethora of books in the area of biblical studies dedicated exclu-sively to the topic of the Satan, and even among those that have recently emerged, most simply serve as a recapitulation of the available information. Ryan Stokes’ new monograph however changes this, boldly suggesting a new hypothesis regarding the meaning of the w…[Read more]

]]> 0 de116ceb521c07ac87ebdc39a77b58e5 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1787684/ Tue, 19 Jul 2022 02:23:41 -0400 According to the promotion text on the jacket, Jehu Hanciles’ book provides “a magisterial sweep through 1500 years of Christian history.” The distin-guished church historian Philip Jenkins agrees, and, in his foreword, credits Hanciles with redrawing “the historical maps by which we understand the Christian story.” Jenkins just regrets that he d…[Read more]

]]> 0 b9ee09c2769b209b19211e9553a17b76 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1787683/ Tue, 19 Jul 2022 02:23:40 -0400 In der Einleitung seines Werkes weist der Autor auf den zweiten Artikel der Glaubensüberzeugungen der Kirche der Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten aus dem Jahr 1980 hin: „Es ist ein Gott: Vater, Sohn und Heiliger Geist, eine Ein-heit von drei gleichermaßen ewigen Personen.“ Doch dieser Satz stehe bei manchen Adventisten so sehr in der Kritik, dass ganze…[Read more]

]]> 0 bfb2557e639797c85ab167d02e24bd57 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1787682/ Tue, 19 Jul 2022 02:23:40 -0400 This is a very spiritual book. As a sequel to the author’s volume titled Longing for God: A Bible-Prayer Journal (Pacific Press, 2017), it continues its personal character and focus on practical piety. It is also a book with a personal back-ground. Hasel recounts numerous details of the tragic loss of his wife Ulrike, who died of cancer, and his s…[Read more]

]]> 0 b9c89bdd15aa00b40942c0beabbf9970 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1787681/ Tue, 19 Jul 2022 02:23:39 -0400 What Richard Rice has essentially achieved in The Future of Open Theism is to appraise the prominent issues in the development of the open theism dis-course and to chart new paths for its future, especially since the publishing of The Openness of God twenty-eight years ago. Rice, a leading voice of the open theism theology, sums up its major…[Read more]

]]> 0 80e1923346dffc845c5f37ef90357c19 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1760786/ Tue, 07 Dec 2021 02:25:00 -0500 This book of 398 pages is a collection of papers presented at the Third International Symposium of the Institute of Adventist Studies at Friedensau Adventist University, held on April 23‒26, 2018. The book, published in 2020, gives a rich tour d’horizon of Adventist life on the European continent. In the global Adventist village, there might be…[Read more]

]]> 0 d5155cd8990740ebe424b80c3fd26b1d https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1760785/ Tue, 07 Dec 2021 02:25:00 -0500 Right from the outset, it has to be said, that Divine Attributes is a follow up volume to Peckham’s The Doctrine of God, published last year, which was pitched at the level of an introductory textbook for the study of the doctrine of God. His current volume takes the discussion further into constructive space and as such moves his overall p…[Read more]

]]> 0 ff0fcae623ed342472d5b468124c4e84 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1760784/ Tue, 07 Dec 2021 02:24:59 -0500 This book was born as an answer to an issue raised from the floor at the 2015 General Conference (GC) Session in San Antonio, Texas (pp. 2‒4). The discussion of women’s ordination led to the observation that Seventh-day Adventists are drawing different conclusions from the same Scriptures. In attempts to explain this reality, it was proposed tha…[Read more]

]]> 0 d39187df1d856c6ffcfa08c77077f5d9 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1760783/ Tue, 07 Dec 2021 02:24:59 -0500 This book is a response to a commission by the officers of the Trans-European Division (TED) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) to take stock of the TED’s history. The occasion was the TED’s ninetieth anniversary (1929‒2019). The goal was to commemorate it and evaluate how the church’s leaders “tried to shape the development of Adventist…[Read more]

]]> 0 639b4428db62147e738b88e4a16c1305 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1760782/ Tue, 07 Dec 2021 02:24:58 -0500 This book’s author calls it “an interpretive essay.” Following up on an interest of his which began when he was a seminary student, he wrote it after he retired to Austin, Texas after years of service as Dean at the Berkeley Divinity School. He is active today in Texas as an Episcopalian Priest. The Episcopalian denomination continues the legac…[Read more]

]]> 0 83ec3bbff492644441408db76be56c06 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1760781/ Tue, 07 Dec 2021 02:24:58 -0500 If ecotheology feels like an unfamiliar word, or worse ‒ like a theological fashion statement ‒ it might be good to begin this book by circling it overhead. First, look at the credentials of the editors and contributors. Of the editors, Alan G. Padgett, is Professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. Kiara A. Jor…[Read more]

]]> 0 fb514def7d198a2791040b6ec7dd70c7 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1744456/ Thu, 01 Jul 2021 02:30:16 -0400 Jacques Doukhan is both the author of Genesis and the editor of the Seventh-day Adventist International Bible Commentary. Genesis is the first release of this series and is intended as a model for all subsequent commentaries. Similar to other biblical commentaries, Genesis covers the entire book of Genesis. In this regard, the editors mention two…[Read more]

]]> 0 9324a69c3b4db057fbfa968f75ea6c73 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1744455/ Thu, 01 Jul 2021 02:30:16 -0400 The Doctrine of God is an introductory textbook aiming to provide a clear and concise introduction to the doctrine of God by addressing some big questions concerning divine attributes and the God-world relationship in mainly recent Christian theology. More precisely the book provides an issue-focused presentation on selected contemporary…[Read more]

]]> 0 9a27c18bbefa092cea571e2366d0f08a https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1744454/ Thu, 01 Jul 2021 02:30:15 -0400 John Bolt, an emeritus professor at Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI) and an expert on Calvinism, endorsed James Eglinton’s new biography of Herman Bavinck with these words: “This will be the definitive Bavinck biography for generations.” Time will tell whether Bolt is correct in this assessment, but after reading this fascinating book I tend…[Read more]

]]> 0 a69ef11f3e8eb9b0533a5491dfd3252e https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1744453/ Thu, 01 Jul 2021 02:30:14 -0400 Steve Daily, Ph.D., is a former Adventist pastor and chaplain who taught psy-chology at Loma Linda and La Sierra Universities for over twenty years. This is the fourth book by Daily about Seventh-day Adventism and its founder (cf. Adventism for a New Generation [Better Living Publications, 1993]; Prophetic Rift, 2 vols. [Better Living…[Read more]

]]> 0 7fb538bab0c31c3dd01a20c59c64ea1a https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1744452/ Thu, 01 Jul 2021 02:30:14 -0400 This published version of Denis Kaiser’s Ph.D.-dissertation is a comprehensive treatment of what the subtitle promises: A thorough analysis of the understanding of divine inspiration in early Seventh-day Adventist history, mainly during the 50 years from 1880 to 1930. The author compiled material from many years of research, collecting even n…[Read more]

]]> 0 1f4137d2ec1811d03d28bbf5c2336d90 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1744451/ Thu, 01 Jul 2021 02:30:13 -0400 “I’m a Black liberation theologian, so don’t be surprised if I say things that will upset you.” (p. 97) This may seem an odd sentence to start a book review with, but it is exactly what Anthony Reddie, Director of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture (Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford), and Extraordinary Professor of Theologic…[Read more]

]]> 0 9182ad7faa81c1a688ebfa052c4cea49 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1718958/ Sat, 05 Dec 2020 02:23:41 -0500 These three volumes, published by the Adventist Forum over eight years, tackle one of the core issues in Adventism: creation, and beyond that, how the Genesis 1‒11 origin narratives could, and should, be read in the context of our current “Gutenbergian” and post-Hubble worldview, now relying heavily on our literacy and understanding of scien…[Read more]

]]> 0 c6a5975da1e6cc3b4221024b0aabb3c3 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1718957/ Sat, 05 Dec 2020 02:23:40 -0500 Matthew J. Korpman “holds four bachelor degrees in Theology, Archaeology, Philosophy, and Screenwriting” and “is currently pursuing his Master of Arts in Religion at Yale Divinity School” (back cover of the book). He is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church; his four B.A. degrees were all received from La Sierra University. He has “recent…[Read more]

]]> 0 36e55959a0646e62aae6e5307066edc3 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1718956/ Sat, 05 Dec 2020 02:23:40 -0500 Barry J. Beitzel is Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and Semitic languages at Trinity Evangelical School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has a special interest in Near Eastern geography. He also has authored The New Moody Atlas of the Bible (Moody Press, 2009). The present work with its interest in geography falls into a similar category. This…[Read more]

]]> 0 25fec2d042571fbae1c9e495d8504f0f https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1718955/ Sat, 05 Dec 2020 02:23:39 -0500 The editors of the volume at hand – a professor of Old Testament exegesis and theology and a professor of theology and Christian philosophy both at Andrews University – undertook the job of editing fourteen papers written by twelve educators of the Theological Seminary of Andrews University into one volume as an answer to the challenge of Last Gen…[Read more]

]]> 0 4598425d66afbbd08ebdeaa04dc585ac https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1718954/ Sat, 05 Dec 2020 02:23:39 -0500 Professor Mark Thomas of Oxford University, who is one of the editors of the series in which Tihomir Lazić’s book Towards an Adventist Version of Communio Ecclesiology: Remnant in Koinonia is published, has high praise for it: “The book is a groundbreaking and highly original piece of work that seeks to bring the distinctive ideas of Seve…[Read more]

]]> 0 b2da0b6e31e5ec46497a298b422c3481 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1718953/ Sat, 05 Dec 2020 02:23:38 -0500 Die Lektüre dieses Werkes1 hinterlässt im Rezensenten eine gewisse Ambiva-lenz. Auf der einen Seite liegt hier ein Beitrag zum Adventismus vor, an dem in künftigen Studien zur Thematik nicht vorbeigegangen werden wird: Zum ersten Mal wird hier aus einer Außenperspektive, aber mit dem tendenziell sympathischen Blick eines ethnographisch ges…[Read more]

]]> 0 a255659f37b1a1c1ef06bd4bdd084004 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1718844/ Fri, 04 Dec 2020 02:24:04 -0500 The Subversive Sabbath, as the subtitle indicates, is mostly a semi-popular and pastorally written book which aims to suggest to readers the surprising power Sabbath observance can bring to busy 21st century Christians. “How is the Sabbath subversive?,” asks the author, and answers by effectively giving the gist of the book: “Sabbath is an alter…[Read more]

]]> 0 9dc317f4eb64f46277bab6c8a8a10554 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1718843/ Fri, 04 Dec 2020 02:24:03 -0500 The author is a Baptist pastor with Italian roots and a well-known writer on both sides of the Atlantic in the realm of Christian spirituality. The book cover itself announces his success with the large heading “more than 500,000 sold,” raising both curiosity as well as concerned German eye brows wondering about the modesty of the author and…[Read more]

]]> 0 101ee7543284e9916840eea34598be17 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1718842/ Fri, 04 Dec 2020 02:24:03 -0500 Editorial to Spes Christiana 31.2

]]> 0 504646cb36311a2534b73127a2395b5b https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692521/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:43 -0400 The book of Revelation has always enjoyed great interest in Adventist circles and has often been the subject of detailed study. Many scholarly studies and articles on the theology of the last book of the Bible have been written, but thorough Adventist exegetical commentaries following the biblical text verse by verse are rather rare. The new…[Read more]

]]> 0 bd8cfecdddae9f7d0ad7645f541429e4 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692520/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:42 -0400 Tonstad was invited to write a 398-page commentary on Revelation in the Paideia Series on the New Testament is a further step in this development of SDA contributions. From the Foreword to this series we read that “the primary focus remains on the text and not its historical context or its interpretations in the secondary literature” (p. x). Tha…[Read more]

]]> 0 c073d672bc1b5e63c7fc1a9d70e0a1ab https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692519/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:42 -0400 1919 is one of the significant dates in Seventh-day Adventist history. In this year, an important conference took place of the denomination’s leaders and theology and history teachers. However, the (incomplete) transcripts of the conference disappeared in the archives of the church’s headquarters and were not unearthed until the 1970s. Soon the…[Read more]

]]> 0 96cc74dbe9472407a276dd32f7023cb7 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692518/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:41 -0400 Die Frage, wie Adventisten sich gegenüber den Forderungen des Militär-dienstes verhalten sollen, wurde während der gesamten Geschichte der Sie-benten-Tags-Adventisten kontrovers diskutiert. Zwei wesentliche Ursachen können dafür benannt werden: 1. Einerseits existiert in den Vereinigten Staa-ten eine Berufsarmee, die nur im besonderen Krie…[Read more]

]]> 0 6caf5b83f1d7e70aeaf5174d543901ae https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692517/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:41 -0400 Nathan Brown’s book was written as a companion volume to a recent set of Sabbath School study guides (third quarter 2019). It is thus divided into thir-teen chapters each of about eight pages. As such, it is directed towards a popular readership within the church. The sequencing of the chapters is not particularly logical and not, one suspects, w…[Read more]

]]> 0 0dff40011f121b57a4498e69e927901c https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692516/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:40 -0400 Editorial preface to Spes Christiana 31.1

]]> 0 80c9e55afad9e689c45e3b71d3e1a390 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692515/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:39 -0400 Millions of Bible verses are shared on Twitter every year. This article examines the Bible on Twitter, by looking at Bible verse images produced by three organisations: Faithlife/Logos Bible Software, Dutch Bible Society, and Graceway. I examine the way these three organisations mediate the Bible on social media. The outputs of these companies…[Read more]

]]> 0 28c75513dcd96b1e10eee8d4842411ee https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692514/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:39 -0400 This study attempts to find and describe a leadership style for a church organization that matches the needs and expectations of the generation called “Millennials.” Lessons are drawn from the work-place where employing entities have had to adapt to the strengths, weaknesses, demands and expectations of a generation that carries particular cul…[Read more]

]]> 0 5fa381a2e41be6ab6bf8630226ad42a8 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692513/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:38 -0400 The article firstly deals with church authority in general and with the way this is understood and functions in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. All church authority is delegated authority, and the church’s authority is always subject to God and the revelation in his Word. The Adventist governmental structure has not always sufficiently r…[Read more]

]]> 0 1d8ff2ea8f99230825d16b5e8699d1d4 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692512/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:38 -0400 To what extent can the Bible, the Christian message, and especially the ministers, as their public representatives, have an impact upon our post-modern society? As public role models of God’s pathos, some leading biblical prophets demonstrated a strong conviction nourished by the basic texts of Israel’s heritage. Consequently, they stood firm for…[Read more]

]]> 0 a30550d4e8c450ac4478c73a66d4ba75 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692511/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:37 -0400 Adventist ethics is an evolving field that, thus far, has lacked comprehensive theoretical grounding. Publications in this academic area fall into six major categories that reflect the importance of the Bible, denominational tradition, and cultural contexts; however, meta-ethics of an Adventist kind is yet to be developed. Therefore, this article…[Read more]

]]> 0 29a0cad0fc0a39e8e641ff166bc5be39 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692510/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:35 -0400 Heavenly sanctuary, earthly sanctuary – has not all been said from an Adventist point of view? It is astonishing that to date there is no comprehensive, scholarly collection analysing the pertinent references that includes not only biblical findings but also ancient Near Eastern (ANE) and early Jewish litera-ture. This has now changed due to t…[Read more]

]]> 0 dda6148ab628a0608638ef5bb393a4fd https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692509/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:30 -0400 There are books with content that one can understand in a couple of minutes or read in a few hours. Others need days, and some can take you weeks. This book actually will entertain you – and challenge you – for months. The author admits that it turned out “a little longer than originally intended” (p. 22); with its more than 700 pages of text, i…[Read more]

]]> 0 435eea4a1fab4adbe2436c8408d5411b https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692508/ Sat, 20 Jun 2020 16:26:28 -0400 This article aims to review the main biblical texts that refer to the pas-toral function in the Old and New Testaments. In reviewing these texts as a whole, it is possible to identify a series of orientations that can contribute to the elaboration of a Theology of Pastoral Ministry from an Adventist perspective. There are some essential concepts…[Read more]

]]> 0 8e6e0301539e1b1eac6848fb9724f6d2 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1692275/ Fri, 19 Jun 2020 07:56:33 -0400 0