God's Strange Work

by Rowe, David L.

• ISBN13: 9780802803801
• ISBN10: 0802803806
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-01
• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co

Summary

"Calvinist Baptist preacher William Miller (1782-1849) was the first prominent American popularizer of using biblical prophecy to determine a specific and imminent time for Christ's return to earth. On October 22, 1844 - a day known as the Great Disappointment - he and his followers gave away their possessions, abandoned their work, donned white robes, and ascended to rooftops and hilltops to await a Second Coming that never actually came. Or so the story goes." "Reflecting Rowe's meticulous research throughout, God's Strange Work does more than tell one man's remarkable story. It encapsulates the broader history of American Christianity in the time period and sets the stage for many significant later developments: the founding of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the tenets of various well-known new religious movements, and even the enduring American fascination with end-times prophecy. Rowe rescues Miller from the fringes and places him where he rightly belongs - in the center of American religious history."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

David L. Rowe is professor of history at Middle Tennessee State University.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
A Note on Quotations and Citations	p. xii
Introduction	p. xiii
Whereby I Might Please God	p. 1
The Society of a Superior Class of Men	p. 24
How Has He Visited Me in My Nightly Dreams	p. 46
A Feast of Reason	p. 69
Go and Tell It to the World	p. 102
My Heart Inclines More towards Them	p. 129
I Am Coming On ...	p. 158
Our Hearts Are Growing Weary of Thy So Long Delay	p. 192
Epilogue: This Work, This Strange Work	p. 226
Bibliography	p. 236
Index	p. 245
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