The aim of this paper is to present, analyse and explain the image of Millerites and Seventh-day Adventists in literature. Most of the authors studied are Americans, but for comparative purposes reference is also made to British and Australian writers. Millennialism and apocalypticism are pervasive themes in both American fiction and Adventist belief. An outline of these subjects is given by way of introduction to the thesis topic. Since Adventists are inexplicable without an understanding of the American culture in which they were nurtured, and by which they continue to be sustained, the literary works which mention them have been related to the historical context. Chapter I details the origin and development of both the Millerite movement and the Seventh-day Adventist Church from the 1840s to the late twentieth century. This provides the setting for and explanation of the religion. Chapter II deals with the "moral approach" which some writers have used in describing Adventists. Despite preaching imminent catastrophe as well as renewal and rebirth only through apocalypse, they have been seen as a virtuous people having moral integrity from which writers can draw important lessons. Chapter III describes the humorous, satirical approach to Adventists includinq recent postmodernist apocalyptic works which use irony as a comical method to depict the church and its followers. Adventists become figures of polarity and radica1 ambiguity. Chapter IV is a study of Adventists presented in literature as caricatures, stereotypes and parodies. Writers set out to debunk and ridicule. It is a convenient strategy for some authors who wish to avoid polemical discussion. Chapter V describes Black writers and Adventism. Over the past sixty years a number of African-American authors with a beckqround in Seventh-day Adventism have published their experience with this religious faith. All writers reject the religion and prefer to embrace the culture of their black heritage. The study silhouettes the difference and similarities among the various writers in the treatment of a single subject.

The methodological approach used to tell the Smith sisters’ story is first and foremost a case study of women in the nineteenth century and the gendered categories that were constructed to define women. The story will be told through a biographical narrative, which will allow Hannah, Julia, and Abby Smith’s to tell their story in their own voice. Also, included within the biography is an examination of the nineteenth-century theories that defined women’s lives, and what effect, if any, these theories had on the Smiths. Each chapter is layered with three different narratives in an attempt to unravel the world that women lived in the nineteenth century. First, the chapter provides a description and analysis of the specific theories such as Republican Motherhood and cult of domesticity to ground the Smith women in the discursive world in which they lived. Then the chapter closely examines the practice or the way the Smith women lived their lives and what they thought about their world. Lastly, each chapter explores the secondary sources that have been written about each subject, such as the new female seminaries that opened in the nineteenth century. By combining these approaches, I hope to avoid some of the shortcomings that dominate the study of women today. First, the theoretical models and the study of real lives of women actually leave women out of their own stories. Second, historians tend to evaluate women’s lives from the past based upon their own political agendas and their own beliefs of what freedom and rights mean completely discarding what it might have meant to women in their own time period.

Die doel van die verhandeling is om pluraliteit binne die Sewendedag-Adventistekerk aan te toon. Die konsep "pluraliteit" word gebruik om verskille en groepvorming aan te toon, terwyl die konsep "pluralisme" verwys na 'n ideologiese standpunt ten opsigte van pluraliteit. Verskille en groepvorming is kenmerkend van die Milleriete of Adventbeweging waaruit die Sewendedag-Adventistekerk ontwikkel het. Die oortuiging dat die Sewendedag-Adventistekerk die "oorblyfselkerk" is, lei daartoe dat Adventiste eksklusief aanspraak maak op die "waarheid". Gevolglik staan die "oorblyfselteologie" voor die uitdaging om verskille en groepvorming sinvol te verdiskonteer. Daar is tans polarisasie rondom verskillende sake. Sewendedag-Adventiste sal dit voordelig vind om dialoog te voer oor die moontlikhede wat 'n prakties-teologiese benadering bied in die hantering van pluraliteit. Teorievorming wat die empiriese werklikhede verdiskonteer sal bydra tot die ontwikkeling van 'n teologie wat kennis neem van die mens se behoeftes binne sy leefwêreld. Die benaderings van Van der Ven en Tracy word bespreek. / The aim of the dissertation is to create awareness regarding plurality within the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The concept "plurality" refers to differences and group forming, while "pluralism" refers to an ideological view regarding plurality. Differences and disputes were very much part of the Millerites or Advent movement out of which the Seventh-day Adventist Church developed. The conviction that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is God's remnant church leads to the exclusive "truth" claim of Adventists. Consequently, the remnant theology is facing the challenge to deal with differences and group forming in a constructive manner. Presently there is polarization within the church on various issues. Seventh-day Adventists will find it beneficial to dialogue about the opportunities that a practical-theological approach offers in dealing with plurality. Theory that accounts for empirical realities will contribute to the development of a theology that will be aware of the needs of people. There is a discussion of the approaches of Van der Ven and Tracy. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)

Die doel van die verhandeling is om pluraliteit binne die Sewendedag-Adventistekerk aan te toon. Die konsep "pluraliteit" word gebruik om verskille en groepvorming aan te toon, terwyl die konsep "pluralisme" verwys na 'n ideologiese standpunt ten opsigte van pluraliteit. Verskille en groepvorming is kenmerkend van die Milleriete of Adventbeweging waaruit die Sewendedag-Adventistekerk ontwikkel het. Die oortuiging dat die Sewendedag-Adventistekerk die "oorblyfselkerk" is, lei daartoe dat Adventiste eksklusief aanspraak maak op die "waarheid". Gevolglik staan die "oorblyfselteologie" voor die uitdaging om verskille en groepvorming sinvol te verdiskonteer. Daar is tans polarisasie rondom verskillende sake. Sewendedag-Adventiste sal dit voordelig vind om dialoog te voer oor die moontlikhede wat 'n prakties-teologiese benadering bied in die hantering van pluraliteit. Teorievorming wat die empiriese werklikhede verdiskonteer sal bydra tot die ontwikkeling van 'n teologie wat kennis neem van die mens se behoeftes binne sy leefwêreld. Die benaderings van Van der Ven en Tracy word bespreek. / The aim of the dissertation is to create awareness regarding plurality within the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The concept "plurality" refers to differences and group forming, while "pluralism" refers to an ideological view regarding plurality. Differences and disputes were very much part of the Millerites or Advent movement out of which the Seventh-day Adventist Church developed. The conviction that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is God's remnant church leads to the exclusive "truth" claim of Adventists. Consequently, the remnant theology is facing the challenge to deal with differences and group forming in a constructive manner. Presently there is polarization within the church on various issues. Seventh-day Adventists will find it beneficial to dialogue about the opportunities that a practical-theological approach offers in dealing with plurality. Theory that accounts for empirical realities will contribute to the development of a theology that will be aware of the needs of people. There is a discussion of the approaches of Van der Ven and Tracy. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)