The Phenomenon of Continuing Revelation in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract Numerous cultural forces converged in the nineteenth-century United States to intensify long-standing debates about the nature of divine revelation. Deists, Millerites, biblical critics, evangelical biblicists, charismatic Christians, Latter-day Saints, Shakers, and others confronted their contemporaries with urgent questions concerning how and when God speaks to humanity. The Seventh-day Adventist message, including its declaration that Ellen White revealed divine truth through the gift of prophecy, was both distinctive in its content and unavoidably shaped by this surrounding culture. This chapter recreates that context and identifies its relationship to the distinguishing elements of Adventist rhetoric and doctrine. It concludes with reflections on the Adventist challenge of situating Ellen White in relation to a deep commitment to the singular authority of the biblical canon.