Adventism’s Intellectual Struggles in the 1960s and 1970s (2022)

Gilbert M. Valentine, Canaries and Ostriches: Coping with Change in Adventism, 1966-1979. Westlake Village, CA: Oak and Acorn, February 2022. 473 pp. ISBN: 979-8418978400.

“The most important contribution of Valentine’s pioneering volume is its highlighting of the terrible cost of avoiding facts. His extensive treatment of Adventism’s intellectual struggles in the 1960s and 1970s features the dynamic of a church in the midst of unwelcome change. All future endeavors in coming to grips with Adventist history during the mid-to-late-20th century will of necessity have to begin with Valentine. This is a book of crucial importance for all those seeking to understand current issues in the church, wherever readers happen to fall in the denomination’s continuum."
George R. Knight, Professor of Church History Emeritus, Andrews University

“Gill Valentine traces in great detail how Church leaders (administrators and professors) dealt with urgent theological questions in the 1960s and 1970s. Every church leader today will see, at some point in this history, her/her own reflection in the mirror when addressing difficult questions that imply change. A fascinating, challenging, troubling, and informative exposé of pivotal theological issues that still call out attention in leadership life.”
Lowell Cooper, General Conference Vice President (2001-2006)

“In this new work Gilbert Valentine turns his spotlight on the Pierson presidency of the Adventist church. The years 1966-1978 were tumultuous in American society and also for the church, as ingrained fundamentalism faced the progressive ideas that came with the recently established universities in Loma Linda and Berrien Springs. Pierson could only react to the changes all around by attempting to return to a comfortable past. Suspicion and witch hunts became the order of the day; many of Adventism’s finest minds were purged. It was not the church’s finest hour. I highly recommend this book: in important respects the struggles of the Pierson years are still with us.”
William G. Johnsson, Editor, Adventist Review (1982-2006)

Gilbert Valentine is a recently retired professor of Leadership and Administration at La Sierra University in Riverside, California. He has both taught and served in senior administration in Adventist higher education in Pakistan, England, Thailand, and Australia as well as in his home country, New Zealand. He has written extensively in the area of Adventist history, notably W. W. Prescott: Forgotten Giant of Adventism’s Second Generation (2005) and The Prophet and the Presidents (2011), which examined the political influence that Ellen White’s letters had on various General Conference presidents.

Description from the publisher’s website.