• • Journal intends to provide Adventist scholars with an incentive to produce historical scholarship.
  • Journal also seeks to capture, commemorate, understand and celebrate Adventist past.
  • Journal looking for authors and volunteers to submit articles and notes, serve on the journal advisory board, and serve as peer reviewers.

06 October 2021 | Did you know the Seventh-day Adventist Church does not have a journal dedicated to historical research? Seems kind of strange for an organization that has an Adventist Heritage Ministry, the Biblical Research Institute, the Center for Adventist Research and an Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists.

The Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research (ASTR) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church aims to change that situation and recently launched the first volume of its newest publication – The Journal of Adventist Archives (JAA). The Director of ASTR, David Trim, said in an article on Adventist News Network that the Journal was produced in hopes of revitalizing “Adventist archival practice and historical scholarship.”

The peer-reviewed Journal intends to provide Adventist scholars with an incentive to produce historical scholarship, and a place to not only publish their work, but also preserve it for access to others all around the world. The first edition of The Journal of Adventist Archives can be read at this link.

“We have nothing to fear for the future except as we forget the way the Lord has led us and His teaching in our past history,” said Trim, recalling a quote by Ellen White, one of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s founders. “Ellen White is making a call for historical scholarship, rather than simply calling for historical memory.”

ASTR hopes the Journal will play a prominent role in the Adventist historical and archival landscape. Adventist archivists, manuscript librarians, records managers, historians, and scholars of religious studies are invited to become a part of the JAA community. In addition, the Journal wants authors and volunteers to submit articles and notes for the Journal, serve on the journal advisory board, and serve as peer reviewers.

“By improving archival practice, we will also help with the task of capturing, commemorating, understanding and celebrating our [Adventist] past,” said Trim.

If you are interested in becoming a part of the JAA community, email the editors. To sign up for the ASTR’s quarterly newsletter, and stay up to date on releases of the new Journal, click here.

(Photo: Emil E. Frauchiger via ASTR Facebook page.)

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