Seventh-day Adventists

Press, 19 April 1986, Page 20

Seventh-day Adventists

In and Out of the World: Seventh-day Adventists in New Zealand. Edited by Peter H. Ballis. Dunmore Press, 1985. $16.95. (Reviewed by Colin Brown) Seventh-day Adventism is not among the larger denominations in New Zealand. In the 1981 census it came sixteenth in the list with 11,523 members. There were many more declared agnostics and atheists, and almost twice as many people in the Salvation Army. To many New Zealanders Seventh-day Adventism is known mainly because of its socially awkward Sabbatarianism, its “stopsmoking” courses, and its links with a well-known sandwich spread and breakfast cereal. Seventh-day Adventism originated in the United States about the middle of last century. It may be regarded as one variety of conservative, evangelical Protestantism; and first appeared on the New Zealand scene in 1885. In sociological parlance Seventh-day Adventism has, increasingly, become a denomination rather than a sect. Signs of this are their increasing respectability and readier acceptance by the wider community: another indication is the fact that — like most of the major churches — Seventh-day Adventism is now firmly anchored among the middle classes. This change and others are documented and discussed in this volume of essays. Not all the essayists are members of the denomination in

question but, throughout the volume, sensitivity to religious concerns and honest scholarship are equally evident This collection does not however, form a continuous history of Seventhday Adventism tn New Zealand. Rather it is a series of essays on a number of themes including the early years of Seventh-day Adventism in New Zealand, their participation during the years 1886-1918 in the prohibition and Bible-in-schools controversies, and over issues related to military conscription; Maui Pomare’s links with the denomination, their educational activities, and missionary work overseas. The general level of most, of the essays is quite high by scholarly standards: those by the editor (on the years 1886-1918), by Peter Lineham on Seventh-day Adventist beginnings in New Zealand in the context of revivalism generally, and Fraser Jackson's quite sophisticated sketch of demographic history are especially notable in this regard. Throughout Seventh-day Adventism is firmly set in the larger context of religious and other developments in New Zealand. This volume is a credit to its editor (a Seventh-day Adventist pastor who graduated in religious studies from Victoria University), and to the denomination concerned, as well as being a valuable contribution to the history of religious minorities in New Zealand. It sets an example and standard that some larger denominations might well emulate.