Institute of Adventist Studies

Call for papers.

Third International Symposium, ThH Friedensau

Contours of European Adventism: Issues in the History of the Denomination on the Old Continent

Contributions Welcome!

You are welcome to submit an abstract (100 to 150 words) of a proposed 30-minute paper until November 20, 2017. Papers should address one of the themes listed below from a historical perspective. Case studies are welcome; suggest an additional topic if you are an expert on it. All presenters are requested to consent to two avenues of publication: (1) the symposium proceedings, and (2) the new Encyclopaedia of Seventh-day Adventists (for more information, see below*).

Contact: esda@thh-friedensau.de (Chigemezi Wogu [CW], M.T.S. / Stefan Höschele [SH], Ph.D.)

Symposium Committee: SH, CW, Prof. Rolf Pöhler, Dr. Daniel Heinz, Dr. Johannes Hartlapp

Paper Topics and Areas

1. European Adventists and the Public

1.1.   European Adventists in Public Life

1.2.   European Adventists and Environmentalism

1.3.   Seventh-day Adventists and Military Service in Europe

1.4.   The European Union and the Seventh-day Adventist Church

1.5.   Adventist Martyrs in Europe

1.6.   European Adventists and Postmodernism/Post-Christian European Culture

1.7.   Adventists and Socialist Governments in Europe

1. European Adventists and “the Others”

2.1.   European Adventists and the Free Churches

2.2.   State Churches in Europe and Seventh-day Adventists

2.3.   Bible Translation and Europe Seventh-day Adventists

2.4.   Adventism and Ethnic Diversity in Europe

2.5.   European Adventists and Migration

1. European Adventists and the Adventist Tradition

3.1.   Ellen White and Europe

3.2.   Contextualization in European Adventism

3.3.   European Adventist Evangelism

3.4.   Potluck, Sabbath School, Worship: Performance & Praxis in Europe

3.5.   Adventist Welfare Service Europe

3.6.   European Adventist Missions and Missionaries

3.7.   Sabbath-Keeping: Challenges and Developments in Europe

3.8.   Adventist Hymnody in Europe: National / Regional Case Studies

* Background of the Symposium

This is the third international symposium of the Institute of Adventist Studies (IAS) at Theologische Hochschule Friedensau, Germany; the symposia of 2014 and 2016 dealt with Adventists and World War I and Adventist Perceptions of the Reformation, respectively.

The 2018 symposium is planned with two publications in view: the conference proceedings and the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists (= ESDA; cf. www.thh-friedensau.de/esda), to which the IAS contributes by coordinating work on the Inter-European and Euro-Asia Divisions. The paper areas closely correspond to the subjects that the ESDA project aims to address. This is why all contributors will be able and are requested to publish their research both in the proceedings and in the encyclopaedia. For the latter purpose, all contributors will receive a writing guide. The symposium presentation is supposed to lay the foundation for the later ESDA article, stimulate discussion, and yield a published article in its own right.

Encyclopaedia Writers’ Seminar

Before the beginning of the symposium on the evening of April 23, 2018, Friedensau Adventist University will host a full-day ESDA writers’ seminar on the same Monday, April 23, conducted largely by staff from the GC Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research. Watch out for further information (www.thh-friedensau.de/esda).

Further Reflections on the Symposium Theme

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is well known for its global spread and its universal appeal. Transcending boundaries of nations, languages, and ethnicity has been one of the major achievements of this movement and is based on a theology of world-wide relevancy (cf. Revelation 14:6–7). Adventism has also been a significant shaper of communities in many parts of the world – but has remained remarkably unsuccessful in many others. In Europe, Adventists are a small minority in most countries although the continent is the denomination’s oldest mission field outside of North America.

European Adventism has a rich heritage of diversity and unity: significant mission advance in some areas, the moulding of peculiar local traditions, and the formation of regional and transnational networks. It is here that the 19th-century American religion founded by the church’s pioneers first translated their identity into a multiplicity of cultural and religious contexts. Thus Adventist history in Europe is replete with instances in which this movement had to face new realities and renegotiate its stance vis-à-vis (1) society at large, (2) other religious and cultural communities, and (3) their own denominational tradition. This symposium aims at highlighting cases in which European Adventists developed profiles of their own by creating new realities in one of these three realms, and attempts to derive insights from these cases on European Adventism as a whole.