Theologian Rodriquez Honored with Collection of Papers on 70th Birthday

By AT News Team, April 24, 2015:   Many of the biggest names among Adventist Bible and religion scholars are among the authors of The Great Controversy and the End of Evil, a volume of essays published on the 70th birthday of Dr. Angel M. Rodriguez, retired former director of the denomination’s Biblical Research Institute (BRI). Dr. Gerhard Pfandl, the book’s editor and a retired BRI associate, presented a copy to Rodríguez during a meeting at Loma Linda University earlier this week, reported the Adventist Review.

Rodríguez has served the Adventist movement as a pastor, professor, college president and BRI director. He retired in 2010 but continues to be part of the scholarly group on a part-time basis, as does Pfandl. The younger staff (the current full-time personnel) are considerably less well-known than Rodriguez who has one of the most out-standing reputations among living Adventist scholars.

The new book contains 27 papers written by colleagues about three main areas of Rodríguez’s work: theodicy and the great controversy theme; the sanctuary doctrine and salvation; and eschatology. It is available on the BRI Web site for $11.99 until July, a discount from its regular price of $19.99, the Review stated.

Rodriguez was born in Puerto Rico and is fluently bilingual. Amazon Prime provides eight of his sermons in Spanish on line. He earned a ThD degree at Andrews University (AU) and served as president of Antillian Collge and academic dean at Southwestern Adventist University before joining the BRI staff in 1992.

He has 182 listings in the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index and is the author or editor of more than a score of books, as well as many scholarly papers. Adventist Today could not find a complete bibliography for his work. He has been called “the most able defender of the Adventist faith in our time” by Dr. Woodrow Whidden, at religion professor at AU.

Rodriguez has published in major academic publications outside the denomination and is a member of both the American Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion. He participate in and has been published by both the Adventist Society of Religious Studies and the more conservative Adventist Theological Society.

“Millions of Adventists around the world have been blessed by Dr. Rodríguez’s books, his columns in the Adventist Review and Adventist World, and his teaching and preaching,” states his listing on the BRI Web site. His two most recent books include a collection of papers by several authors on ecclesiology that he edited: Toward A Theology of the Remnant and Message, Mission, and Unity of the Church, but published by BRI.

“The event was appropriately celebrated by remembering God’s goodness in the life of one of his servants,” the Review quoted Gerald A. Klingbeil, one of its associate editors who was present for the birthday celebration this week. “We also shared some ice cream, a favorite of Dr. Rodríguez’s, reminding everyone that the best is yet to come.”