Adventism & Catholicism in a Changing World: What can we learn from each other?

by Reinder Bruinsma, PhD  |  16 October 2024  |

This lecture was originally scheduled for Loma Linda University on October 16, but was canceled on orders from General Conference president Ted Wilson. It was rescheduled for the Norte Vista High School Theater in Riverside, California. It was also the occasion of launching Dr. Bruinsma’s new book: Adventists and Catholics: the History of a Turbulent Relationship.

I am excited to stand before you, and together with others be part of this special program that is linked to the publication of my book Adventists and Catholics: the History of a Turbulent Relationship. Most of you will know that the organization of this program caused considerable commotion, and I am truly grateful that a new venue was found and that you all have come.

My lecture builds on the content of my book but aims to extend several threads from the past into the future, and I want to suggest some ways in which Catholics and Adventists can actually learn from each other.

Common characteristics

The readers of my book will note that Adventists have (at least officially) continued to insist that, throughout its history, Roman Catholicism has not fundamentally changed and that it will not really change in the future. The “Roman Church” may, as Adventist pioneer Ellen G. White suggested, present “a fair front” to the world, but it remains unchanged, and “beneath the variable appearance of the chameleon, she [the Catholic Church] conceals the invariable venom of the serpent.”^[1]

I believe it is time to distance ourselves from this characterization. The medieval church of the centuries before Trent, and even the church of Vatican I, is not the same church as the community that Pope Francis presides over, just as the small Adventist Church of the Adventist “pioneers” is not the denomination of 2024, with its 23 million members under the leadership of pastor Ted N.C. Wilson.

The Catholic Church and the Adventist Church are among the religious organizations that have a truly world-wide presence. Global membership of the Catholic Church now stands at around 1.4 billion.^[2] Per mid-2023 the Adventist Church had 22.4 million members,^[3] with an official presence in 212 countries.^[4] According to Adventist church historian George Knight, the Catholic Church and the Seventh-day Adventist Church are the only churches that can claim to be truly “catholic” (in the original sense of the word, i.e., “general”).^[5] Their worldwide presence is, in particular, visible in their extensive educational and medical networks.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Adventism was the extreme reluctance in its early years to adopt any organizational structure above the local level. The Adventist Church has, however, gradually developed into one of the most tightly organized religious movements in the world. It claims to have a democratic structure, with the local church at its basis. But it cannot be denied that the Adventist administrative structure has, in actual fact, become more and more hierarchical, with a de facto steadily increasing power of the president of the world church.^[6] William G. Johnsson (1934-2023), a prominent Adventist author and scholar, pointed out that we notice more and more how authority in the Adventist Church no longer flows from the bottom to the top, but rather from the top to the bottom.^[7] This led him to repeat the question George Knight asked in 2017: “How Catholic do we really want to be?”^[8]

We find another remarkable parallel in the sphere of dogma. In the Catholic Church the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith—since 2022 the new name for what was known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—serves as a “guard dog” for the purity of doctrine and the correct application of church discipline.

The Adventist Church has experienced a remarkable development with regard to its body of doctrines and its intensifying determination to protect official Adventist teaching. The early Adventists did not follow most other denominations in formulating a formal creed. But over time the Adventist Church decided to create a Statement of (now 28) Fundamental Beliefs, which in actual practice functions very much as a creed.^[9] While Adventists will emphatically and consistently argue that the Bible is the only source of their theology, those with any knowledge of historical theology will acknowledge that Adventist theologians never worked in a theological and philosophical vacuum, and had no immunity against the various theological traditions that influenced them.^[10] Since 1975 the Biblical Research Institute, located at the church’s headquarters office, plays a crucial role in defining and safeguarding Adventist doctrine.

The doctrine of papal infallibility which was promulgated during Vatican I (1869-1870) has been heavily criticized by Protestants in general, and by Adventists in particular. But although official Adventism does not ascribe any infallibility and inerrancy to Ellen G. White, many church members are convinced that her prophetic endowment ensured that her writings are not only theologically, but also historically and scientifically, correct.

An (in my view) unfortunate common aspect in Catholicism and Adventism is the continued refusal to give women their rightful, and biblically mandated, place in the church. In the controversy about the ordination of female pastors, time and again church leadership claimed that once a decision has been reached in a convocation of the global church, this must be obeyed as the final word on that particular issue.^[11]

Another important parallel in the domain of ecclesiology between Catholicism and Adventism, is in the special position of their church viz-a-viz other churches. Catholics no longer hold to Cyprian’s view of nulla salus extra ecclessiam, but they still stress the unique position of their church—as the true church to which the “separated brethren” must return.^[12] Adventists have never believed there is nulla salus outside their church, but they continue to claim a very special status for their denomination as “the remnant church of Bible prophecy.”^[13]

Common challenges

The parallels and similarities between Catholicism and Adventism may be significant, but so are the many differences—in our histories, our theologies, and our worship styles. But also with regard to religious devotions and popular forms of piety, in the way in which the church is administered, and in the lifestyle trends of the members. However, in what follows, my emphasis is not on what separates us, but on what we can learn from each other. There is, I believe, a solid basis for this positive approach. Together with many other Christian denominations we affirm the fundamental truths of the Apostles’ Creed,^[14] a fact that Adventists often tend to forget when comparing the two denominations.

The Roman Catholic Church is firmly rooted in history. Adventist Christians must not forget that for many centuries there was no other major Christian movement and that even after the split with Eastern Christianity in 1054, the Roman Catholic Church remained until the Protestant Reformation the dominant Christian voice in the Western world and beyond. With our criticism of Catholicism we often tend to forget how much we owe to the church of the centuries. It was to this church that we owe the initial mission outreach into many parts of the world—including the evangelization of my country, the Netherlands, in the eighth century.

Adventists must be constantly reminded of how they are indebted to the Catholic Church in the areas of theology, spirituality, hymnody, religious art, and architecture, as well as in the creation, multiplication, and preservation of Bible manuscripts, and the cultural and other achievements in many domains by the different monastic orders. And today Roman Catholic theologians continue to play an important role in all disciplines of biblical and religious scholarship.

As distinct branches of the Christian Church, Catholicism and Adventism do indeed differ in the way they preach the gospel and minister to their members, but they face many of the same challenges. Let me briefly mention some of these. The Christian Church in the western world is in many places fighting for its very survival, with an alarming exodus, in particular, of the younger generations.^[15] This is true for the Catholic as well as the Adventist Church. Where church growth in the western world is still taking place, it is mostly due to the arrival of large numbers of Christian immigrants from the South. But in many places parishes are combined,^[16] church buildings are closed and sold, and church attendance is dramatically down.^[17] At the same time there is a serious problem with regard to the recruitment of new clergy.

Church historian Philip Jenkins wrote about the constantly accelerating shift of Christianity toward the South.^[18] He referred in many places of his book The Next Christendom to the experience of Catholicism. He could well have used Adventism as another example. In 1926 the point was reached that there were as many Adventists in the USA as there were in the rest of the world, whereas today only 6 percent of all Adventists live in North America and only about 7 percent of all Catholics are found in the USA.^[19] Today the vast majority of Catholics and Adventists live in the non-western world.

Together with other Christian communities, Catholics and Adventists face the staggering task of representing the Christian God and presenting the gospel to the vast urban metropoles of today’s world, as well as to the area of our globe that missiologists refer to as the 10-40 window, where only a small percentage of the population knows Christ in any real sense.^[20] Together with other Christians, Catholics and Adventists face the immense task of sharing Christ’s love and the divine grace with a post-postmodern, ever more biblically illiterate, utterly materialistic, and deeply secular world. In spite of all our differences, we are partners in fulfilling the commission Christ gave his followers before He left this earth.^[21]

What can Roman Catholics learn from Seventh-day Adventists?

In his book Catholics and Protestants, Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston College, suggests that Protestants may err by seeing too little in Catholicism, and he confesses that, as a Catholic, he may run the risk of seeing too little in Protestantism.^[22] I surmise that Adventists have focused on what they consider wrong in Roman Catholicism and have thereby often failed to see the many good things in the Catholic Church of the past and the present. Before I mention some of these things that Adventists should try to see, allow me to suggest that there are also things in Adventism that might be good for Catholics to consider.

First, I am thinking of the Adventist focus on healthful living and other positive lifestyle elements. There is ample documentation that, as a result of their lifestyle, on average Seventh-day Adventists are healthier and live longer than most other population segments. In some recent comparative health studies Adventists fared better in several respects than Catholics.^[23] That Catholics also have the potential of longevity is illustrated by the fact that two of the so-called “blue zones,” with an extraordinary number of people of a hundred-plus-years old, are predominantly Catholic.^[24]

For Seventh-day Adventists, healthful living is a practical implication of their stewardship theology. Christians must, they believe, recognize God’s ownership of everything, including their bodies. This means that it is not only a matter of common sense to take good care of our bodies, but it also has an important religious connotation. Catholics might learn from Adventists in this regard. This is not to say that Catholics in their theology and praxis have over time totally ignored this aspect of the faith, but, from an Adventist perspective, there is certainly room for improvement.

This is also true for another element of stewardship: the financial aspect. The Catholic Church and the Adventist Church are both “rich” in terms of real estate.^[25] But they often struggle to find the funds for the day-to-day running of their congregations and the operation of their organization. For this they must mostly depend on the continued generosity of their members. Here also the principle of stewardship is of prime importance. After experimenting with another method, Adventists adopted the biblical tithing system. The strong and persistent promotion of the tithing system has resulted in a much stronger financial structure than most other denominations have. An extensive, worldwide, adoption and promotion of the tithing system could help the Catholic Church to operate at its many levels with fewer financial concerns.

A third area where Catholics might learn from Adventists concerns their weekly day of rest. Of course, Adventists will continue to insist that by promoting the Sunday as the weekly day of rest, Catholics have gone against the biblical directive to keep the seventh day of the week holy. Moreover, Sabbath “rest” is in Catholic circles mostly practiced in the form of sport, shopping, and entertainment, despite official Catholic documents which describe the weekly day of rest in much more elevated, spiritual terms. In his Apostolic Letter Dies Domini, Pope John Paul II invited the believers “to rediscover with new intensity the meaning of Sunday: its “mystery, its celebration, its significance for Christian and human life.”^[26] Adventist theologian Sigve Tonstad comments that it would have “far-reaching consequences” if that invitation would be accepted and translated into praxis, since the Sabbath contains “a vast untapped reserve, touching the deepest longing of human beings regardless of their background or profession.”^[27] Adventist are certainly not perfect in their Sabbath keeping, but I do believe that they are far ahead of Catholics in this respect and provide an, admittedly imperfect, model to follow.

What can Seventh-day Adventists learn from Roman Catholics?

From among the many things Adventists can learn from Catholicism I have chosen three elements which I find extremely meaningful for myself and my coreligionists. These three elements are closely intertwined. The first of these is the attitude towards time. The second concerns the role of art in the life of the church, while the third focuses on aspects of worship.

Time

Seventh-day Adventists always seem to be in a hurry. Time is short because Christ is coming soon. When the church meets for its quinquennial world congress, as a rule the participants are told this may well be the last time the world church convenes before it meets again in the Kingdom. The belief that they live at the very end of time has given Adventist faith and praxis a sense of urgency and a dynamic that has positive aspects. It gives the church the characteristics of a movement; of being on its way toward a distinct goal—rather than being an institution that simply wants to continue to exist. The signs of the times are signals that the end is near. However, there is another side to the coin. As time passes, the word “soon” demands constant qualification. The church must deal with the cognitive dissonance^[28] of faulty prophetic interpretations and with the problem of the “delay” of the Second Coming.^[29]

This unmitigated emphasis on the nearness of Christ’s coming and of the end of our present world has seriously impacted on Adventism in its long-term planning. How different might things have developed if in the 1970s and 1980s the church had been able to think a few decades ahead. However, the organizational system divides time into short segments, with plans and slogans limited to the next four or five years! New strategic plans, devised by newly elected leaders, are often rolled out before previous projects have been properly implemented and evaluated.

The Roman Catholic Church has a different rapport with time. It has a sense of history and knows that change and developments take time. It is used to thinking in terms of decades, or even longer, rather than in terms of years, and is much less focused on what the church wants to do than on what it wants to be. Could it be that Adventists, in fact, relate to time in a rather secular way? The seventh day has indeed a special significance but, apart from the Sabbath, time is the arena for activity. Days, weeks, months, and years are quantified within cycles of constituency meetings and general conferences, while for Catholics the daily eucharist and the Christian calendar give time a special, sacred rhythm that supersedes the purely secular experience of time.^[30]

The Adventist Church must somehow retain its sense of urgency—which is a vital part of its identity—while learning from Catholicism that many things do take time, and that without a long-term view and a firm dose of patience, the church loses much of its capacity to provide rest and stability—and is vulnerable to an obsession with activities that must be accomplished in a short time.

Art

For centuries the Christian faith and the arts have been close allies. Countless people have been inspired to greater piety by the paintings, sculptures, stained-glass windows, poetry, hymnody, and the great cathedrals of Christendom. The Roman Catholic Church has not only commissioned and collected great works of art, but, more importantly, to a great extent integrated art in its worship and ministries.

With its much shorter history, its much smaller size, and its emphasis on the shortness of the time that remains, it stands to reason that the Adventist Church relates to the arts in a different way. Most church building are functional and not very interesting from an architectural point of view. Some Adventist campuses have sculptures, most of which are quite naturalistic.^[31] Paintings in Adventist buildings tend to have eschatological motifs. Adventist book illustrators and graphic designers have often produced good quality work, but most of it qualifies as applied art, rather than as art in its own right.

Catholic art has, as a rule, aimed at “invoking and mediating the holy through the image and work of the eye,” while Adventists have tended, perhaps even more than most other Protestant denominations, to emphasize “intellectual and verbal modes of communication,” and “to educate the mind and elevate the spirit through the word and the work of the ear.”^[32] This has created an imbalance: an “almost total devotion to cognitive religion at the expense of experiential, emotional religion.”^[33]

What the Australian professor Daniel Reynaud said with regard to music is true for the arts in general: Adventists have tended to fail in drawing a clear distinction between the arts “as a means of evangelism and as a form of more general artistic expression.”^[34]

While they may have serious concerns about the manner in which objects of arts, such as images of Mary and the saints, are venerated in much popular Catholic devotion, Adventists could let themselves be inspired by the overall Catholic track record regarding the arts, in overcoming their often far too narrow definition of the essence and role of art in the experience of faith.

Worship

What strikes me most when I occasionally attend a Catholic worship service or watch it on television, is the fact that things happen. It differs from the Protestant sermon-dominated worship in that most Catholic services are much more visual, varied, and inter-active. Like the Old Testament tabernacle and temple services, they offer an experience that appeals to all the senses.

The late professor C. Raymond Holmes (1929-2022), who converted to Adventism from Lutheranism, taught practical theology at Andrews University. He believed it was “perhaps providential that the Seventh-day Adventist Church does not have many liturgical roots.” This, he said, gave them the opportunity “to start with a clean slate and create forms of worship that are distinctively ours.”^[35] Whether or not Adventism could start with a clean slate remains a matter of debate, but the forms the church has developed leave, in my opinion, much to be desired. Adventist worship has, to a large extent, been denominated by a sense of activism—promoting mission projects and things that must be done. Just think of the current denomination-wide slogan: “Reach the World—I will go,” launched by the General Conference president during the 2020 world congress.^[36] Not: “I will pray”, or: “I will meditate”, but: “I will go!” Rather than basing its annual worship cycle on the traditional liturgical year with the Christian feasts, the Adventist Church has a calendar of special Sabbaths during which church departments and mission projects are promoted. Perhaps the difference between the Adventist and Catholic worship experience may best be characterized as the contrast between an emphasis on doing and an emphasis on being.

Early on in my theological development I read Rudolf Otto’s (1869-1937) seminal book, Das Heilige, published in English as: The Idea of the Holy.^[37] It made me aware of how my own Adventist religion was overly rational and largely missed the element of the numinous, to which Otto referred as the mysterium tremendum et fascinans. The Adventist fear of making religion too emotional and of somehow introducing ideas and forms that are perceived as “Catholic”—and thus may lead us on a treacherous path towards “Babylon”—risks to rob the worshipers of the “touch of the sacred.”^[38]

The fact that several of the Christian feasts are linked with Sunday is no doubt one of the reasons why Adventists have been reluctant about adopting the common Christian tradition of the liturgical year. Gradually, Christmas services have become more accepted in Adventist churches in many parts of the world. But Easter and other important days in the Christian calendar are still (in my opinion) highly underrated.

In making Adventist worship truly focused on the worth of our Creator and Redeemer, with symbols and rituals that not only, or even primarily, speak to the mind but very definitely also to the heart—Adventists must shed their fear of introducing new elements in their liturgy. Many of these elements are indeed “catholic,” but in the sense that they belong to the whole of Christianity, and thus also to the Adventist Church. I wonder: Will there ever be a time when we can look at non-Adventist (even: Roman Catholic) worship without immediately searching for what we do not like or what we regard as unbiblical, but rather with an appreciation for what is beautiful and might also enrich Seventh-day Adventist worship?

Conclusion

Let’s not deny the major differences that separate Protestants, and in particular Seventh-day Adventists, from Roman Catholics. However, let us, when describing these differences, never forget the basic beliefs and traditions that we have in common.

Let us make a consistent effort to stop misrepresenting other Christian denominations, including the Catholic Church. I hope my book can contribute to this process. Perhaps we can at some future point in time decide that we must actually ask for forgiveness for the many times we have accused Catholic believers and, in particular, the Catholic Church, because of ignorance, or in ways that were definitely un-Christian. Too often Adventist authors and preachers have been (and are) biased and prejudiced. Admittedly, in the past anti-Catholic sentiments were not a uniquely Adventist phenomenon. But times have changed. Together we now must face the challenge of bringing the gospel to an increasingly secular and non-Christian world.

I pray that the Seventh-day Adventist Church will be able to retain its identity but will no longer see other Christian churches—including the Catholic Church—primarily as enemies but rather as allies in the fulfilment of the gospel commission. And let us, in the process, try to learn from each other, and be inspired by the other, as we go about our sacred task.

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1. Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy (Mountain View, CA: PPPA, 1911), p. 571. ↑
2. https://omnesmag.com/en/newsroom/new-data-church-world/# ↑
3. https://www.adventistresearch.info/wp-content/uploads/ACRep2023.pdf. ↑
4. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/assets/pdf/article-5DZV.pdf ↑
5. George R. Knight, Adventist Authority Wars, Ordination, and the Roman Catholic Temptation (Westlake Village, CA: Oak and Acorn Publishing, 2017), p. 41. ↑
6. See, e.g., Matthew Quartey, https://spectrummagazine.org/views/twenty-six-years-under-wilson-leadership-review-2-2/ ↑
7. William G. Johnsson, Where Are We Headed? Adventism after San Antonio (Westlake Village, CA: Oak and Acorn Publishing, 2017), p.161. ↑
8. Knight, Ibid., p. 42. ↑
9. For a history of the development of Adventist Fundamental Beliefs, see: Sergio Silva, “Development of the Fundamental Beliefs Statement with Particular Reference to the Fundamental Belief #6: Creation ” (Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, vol. 21. no. 1-2; 2010), pp. 14-44. ↑
10. A striking example is the Adventist adoption of the historicist tradition in their interpretation of apocalyptic prophecy. For a short history of the historicist interpretive model, see Reimar Vetne, “A Definition and Short History of Historicism as a Method for Interpreting Daniel and Revelation,” Journal of the Adventist Theological Society (Vol. 14, no. 2; Fall 2003), pp. 1-14. ↑
11. This view is supported by an oft-quoted statement by Ellen White: “I have been shown that no man’s judgment should be surrendered to the judgment of any one man. But when the judgment of the General Conference, which is the highest authority that God has upon earth, is exercised, private judgment must not be maintained, but be surrendered” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. III), p. 392. ↑
12. B.B. Beach, “Looking Back on the First Session of Vatican Council II,” Review and Herald (Feb. 14, 1963), p. 9. ↑
13. For the text, see: Church Manual, rev. ed. (Silver Spring: Secretariat of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 2022), pp. 51, 52. ↑
14. For the text of the Apostles’ Creed, and some historical background: see J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds (London, UK: Longmans, Green and Co, Ltd, 1960), pp. 368-434. ↑
15. An example is the “mass exodus” of Catholics in the USA and Britain. See: Stephen Bullivant, Mass Exodus: Catholic Disaffiliation in Britain and America since Vatican II (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2019). ↑
16. The diocese of Utrecht (the Netherlands) is a sad example of this trend. Of the circa 300 parishes in the past, only 46 remain today. https://gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/utre0.htm?tab=stat. ↑
17. For recent statistics of Adventist church attendance, see David Trim’s statistical report 2023, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/Other/ACRep2023.pdf ↑
18. Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). See also: Westly Granberg-Michaelson, From Times Square to Timbuktu: The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013), pp. 7-12. ↑
19. Leslie Woodcock Tentler, American Catholics: A History (New Haven, CT and London, UK: Yale UniversityPress, 2020), 289–353. ↑
20. The term “10/40 window” refers to a geographical region on the world map that stretches between 10 degrees and 40 degrees north of the equator. This area encompasses parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. ↑
21. The so-called gospel commission is found in: Matthew 28:18-20; also: Mark 16:15, 16: Luke 24:46-49; and John 20:19-23. ↑
22. Peter Kreeft, Catholics and Protestants: What Can We Learn from Each Other? (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017), p.12. ↑
23. E.g. Anna Majda, Joanna Zalewska-Puchała, Iwona Bodys-Cupak, Alicja Kamińska, Anna Kurowska, and Marcin Suder, 2021, “Comparison of Lifestyle of Catholics and Seventh-Day Adventists and the Relationship with Homocysteine as Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Diseases, a Cross-Sectional Study in Polish Males and Females” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 1: 309. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18010309 ↑
24. https://www.bluezones.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Nat_Geo_LongevityF.pdf. The five areas are: (1) Okinawa, Japan; (2) Sardinia, Italy; (3) Icaria, Greece; (4) Nicoya, Costa Rica; and (5) the Seventh-day Adventist community around Loma Linda in southern California. The areas in Sardinia and Costa Rica are predominantly Roman Catholic. ↑
25. The global Catholic Church is reported to have assets valued at some 73 billion dollars. (https://www.marketplace.org/2023/02/10/how-much-money-does-catholic-church-have/), while the Adventist Church has assets to the tune of some 16 billion dollars. This figure for the Adventist Church, however, dates from 1998; I have not been able to find a more recent estimate. It may well be double or triple the 1998 amount (https://www.workandmoney.com/s/worlds-richest-religious-organizations-4b6a530bcc744205). ↑
26. Dies Domini, par. 3. For the text, see e.g. http://www.scborromeo.org/docs/dies_domini.pdf ↑
27. Sigve K. Tonstad, The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2009), p. 505. ↑
28. The classical study of cognitive dissonance remains: Leon Festinger, When Prophecy Fails (Redford, VA: Wilder Publications, 1956). ↑
29. See Malcolm Bull and Keith Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism & and the American Dream (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1989 ed). pp. 54, 55; Sakae Kubo, God Meets Man: The Theology of the Sabbath and Second Advent (Nashville, TN: Southern Publishing Association, 1979), chapter: “The Problem of Delay”, pp, 97-104. ↑
30. See: Terence Sweeney, “Living in Liturgical Time.” https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/journal/2020/12/16/christian-time-4zcaf. ↑
31. An example is the sculpture of the Good Samaritan at Loma Linda University. For a picture, see: https://llu.edu/about-llu/history/about-seventh-day-adventists/good-samaritan ↑
32. Robin M. Jensen, The Substance of Things Seen: Art, Faith and the Christian Community (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004), p. 52. ↑
33. Daniel Reynaud, “Toward an Adventist Aesthetic for the Arts,” Spectrum, vol., 32, no. 3 (Summer 2004), p. 53. ↑
34. Ibid., p. 50. ↑
35. C. Raymond Holmes, “Ritual and Adventist Worship” (Ministry, February 1983), pp. 8, 9, 13. ↑
36. https://www.pastortedwilson.org/ahead-of-the-launch-of-the-seventh-day-adventist-churchs-strategic-plan-ted-n-c-wilson-asks-when-god-calls-you-will-you-say-here-i-am-send-me/ ↑
37. Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1923. ↑
38. Cf. the title of the book by the Dutch practical theologian, F. Gerrit Immink, which I was privileged to translate into English: The Touch of the Sacred: The practice, theology and tradition of Christian Worship (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishers, 2014. ↑

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