Memory, Meaning & Faith

2010 Adventist Historians' Conference: Epilogue

The compelling, rich, challenging, and deeply spiritual presentation of Dr. Diop was a moving and inspiriting capstone to a series of thought-provoking and excellent meetings.  At the end of his presentation and discussion the formal meetings of the conference ended.  (Although there will be a final business meeting tomorrow morning, though many of us will be on the road and unable to attend.  Substantial rumor has it, though, that the decision will be made that the next conference will be held at Union College.)

The attendees retired to the WAU cafeteria where a wonderful Sabbath lunch, and further delicious discussions, was enjoyed by all, preparatory to a Sabbath afternoon tour of historic Adventist sites in D.C.  We had a short time here, but it was a time of fellowship, challenge, provocation (in the best sense) and interchange. Special recognition should be given to our gracious hostess and ASDAH President Joan A. Francis, whose organizational efforts, assisted by colleagues and students, were superb at making us feel both at home, and as participants at well-run, very efficient meetings.

We leave with a sense that the Adventist historians have perhaps more work to do to engage questions of faith, providence, and prophecy with which members and evangelists grapple.  There has been an increasing disconnect and disengagement of many Adventist historians from those questions with our increasing concerns with professionalization.  But this has only caused layman and others to handle these questions with less care and reflection, not caused the questions themselves to disappear. 

How do we develop and engage professionally as Historians, while taking seriously our role as members and thought-leaders in our prophetic Adventist community of faith?  Perhaps the closing lectures of Dr. Land, challenging us to take more seriously questions of the philosophy of faith and history, and of Dr. Diop, challenging us to engage more fully the comprehensive Adventist mission, crossing over our from our comfort zones, which can perhaps include our zones of professional comfort, help point the way.  We hope that the discussion can continue, especially on the pages of this blog, on our way to the next meetings at Union!

2010 Adventist Historians' Conference: Sabbath Sessions

Today is the final day of substantive meetings for the conference. (There will be a final business meeting tomorrow morning.)  It starts with a Sabbath School session given by Gary Land on teaching about faith and history.  Then there will be a church session, with a presentation by Dr. Ganoune Diop from the Global Mission Study Center at the General Conference.


“Teaching the Philosophy of Faith and History,” Gary Land, Andrews University


This is an idea that Dr. Land has had floating around his mind for a while, that he has finally put to paper.  It relates to Christian approach to history.  Historians are notorious for lack of interest in theory.  In some ways this is good, as our attention should be on people, their ideas, and actions.  Yet, even our narratives contain implicit philosophical assumptions about causation and meaning.  Thus, we need to consider our philosophy, even if it is largely unspoken.  Especially as Christians, we need to consider the meaning of history.

2010 Adventist Historians' Conference: Friday Sessions

This is Nick Miller again from the ASDAH conference here in Washington, blogging for the second day of the conference. There were concurrent sessions, so I was not able to cover them all. But most of the papers that were presented can be found online here.

What follows is a summary of the presentations I was able to attend or otherwise obtain information on that I thought worth sharing.

2010 Adventist Historians' Conference: T.R.M. Howard

Opening Dinner and Keynote Address

This is Nicholas Miller, blogging from Takoma Park about the Association of Seventh-day Adventist Historians (ASDAH) meetings here at Washington Adventist University.  We had a very enjoyable opening evening in the Sligo Church Fellowship Hall.  After welcomes by Joan Francis, WAU history professor and President of the ASDAH and WAU president Weymouth Spence, Douglas Morgan, WAU history professor introduced the main speaker of the evening, Dr. David Beito, Professor of History at Alabama University.  Dr. Beito is author of Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard’s Struggle for Equal Rights and Economic Opportunity.  What follows is a highlight summary of the presentation, which covers the life and career of Adventist-educated Dr. T.R.M. Howard.

Summary

Who has heard of Medgar Evers, Fanny Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks?  (Mostly all in audience.)

What about T.R.M. Howard?  Largely overlooked.  Died in 1976, with no mention in Time magazine or even Ebony.

There is a good argument that if it were not for Howard, we would never have heard of Evers, Hamer, or Parks.

2010 Adventist Historians' Conference

This weekend Memory, Meaning & Faith regular contributor Nick Miller will be blogging the 6th Triennial Meeting of the Association of Seventh-day Adventist Historians. He will be posting evening updates on the presentations and proceedings at the campus of Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, Maryland. The sessions will cover topics such as "War Mongering," "Religion, Diversity & Change in the West," and "Race, Ethnicity & Adventist Church Governance." We look forward to Nick's reports on the sessions he attends.

Nick will also be tweeting the conference at Memory, Meaning & Faith on Twitter, where, among other things, you can find out what it's like to take a 12-hour road trip in a minivan full of historians.