America's Advents - Professor Alec Ryrie

The religious entrepreneurs of a newly democratic society rebelled against the proliferation of denominations by creating new movements of their own, from Utopian communities to apocalyptic revivals. The most notorious such movement, the Millerites, forecast the end of the world for 1844 - in the most modern, rational and compelling terms.

This lecture will explore why Millerites believed the predictions, what effects they had, and how they responded to the Great Disappointment. And it will look at how two very different but almost equally successful modern Christian movements, the Seventh-day Adventists and the Jehovahs Witnesses, emerged from the wreckage.

[diannaholiday]

This professor is a masterful lecturer. My interest is riveted to every topic he lectures on. Many thanks!

[telemarkaeology]

I can't read or hear about Adventist movements without thinking of that old Hitchens quote: "One imagines they suffer from a profound sense of anticlimax."

[philiptadros]

Tremendous stuff from Ryrie. This is how history should be told.

[jkr]

i do not know how i got here, but i am somewhat enjoing it.
guess i need to change what i want to study.

[michaeltowslee]

i am a dis-associated witness. That means I left the society voluntarily. I need to declare my colors from the start. While I believe I was right to leave I bear no animosity to the society. Prof. Ryrie's analysis of the society is spot-on. His inclusion of more recent changes was especially informative. I found one shortcoming. He said that separation from the world is the main trait of the society. I would disagree. The individual Witnesses fear of stepping one toe out of line is driving force in their lives. Other than that they are more typical of normative Christianity than they or other denominations will ever admit.

[tjohnecho]

Really love to listen to Prof Alec Ryrie's insightful and superbly presented lectures. Thank you so much.

[williammurphy]

Thanks so much much Professor Ryrie. Few lecturers could weave religious zealotry, the wider secular historical background and Kellogg's Cornflakes into a narrative which is funny, immensely touching and so educational. It incidentally illustrates aspects of both political movements (e. g. Marxism) and respectable religions who have adapted in the face of rapidly changing modernity.

[NicholasEymann]

I wish all lectures were given by Alex Ryrie

[foveauxbear]

regardless of your theist or atheist views, this man defines how history should be taught. I'd possibly have enjoyed history far more that the stale, dried sponge cake that was dished up to me in the 70s.

[EcclesiastesLiker-pyts]

Very Informative. There was a noteworthy case in which Adventists and Witnesses were placed side by side in the same situation, the Rwandan Genocide. Rwanda had a surprising large population of Adventists, and the Witneseses had a small presence there when the genocide occurred, both groups were composed on both Hutu and Tutsi. While Adventists participated in the Genocide along with members of protestant and Catholic churches, dividing along ethnic lines, Witnesses didn't. Hutu witnesses hid and protected their Tutsi brothers and sisters. Clearly, the Witnesses are doing something right. The witnesses published an article on the topic "Remembering the Rwandan genocide 25 years on."

[thomasjamison]

In the 19th century, a meager education in New England was not all that meager. W B Dubois, in the 1870's, commented that a New England high school education was often times better than any college education in the South. And at the time, illiteracy in many parts of the south exceeded 90%.

[dakrontu]

At 09:00 typical survivor's reaction to surviving a massacre. It must have been God's work. Ignoring, of course, the opinions of the far larger number of dead, who might disagree about such 'benevolence'.

[DF-ssep]

I can't wrap my head around the success of these movements. Humans boggle my mind.

[timeforlaurynsopinion]

The part about not selling the church's soul for breakfast cereal is very ironic to me because here in Australia the seventh-day adventist church is heavily affiliated with Sanitarium, the company that makes weet-bix.

[ashthebash]

Excellent, thank you.
One small mistake but I'm sure it was a word slip. It wasn't Russell but rather Rutherford, the second president of the Bible Students, who was imprisoned in 1918 along with 7 others as a result of clergy inspired persecution due to their neutrality.
As you accurately mention, the witnesses are among the most persecuted modern religious group and they are currently being beaten and imprisoned in Russia, as well as other countries, for their political neutrality.

[robertfeinberg]

I recalled recoiling when Goldwater said that, but I supported him beyond his own adherence to it. Late in life he married a liberal Jewish woman, and he never renounced Judaism completely, and I adhered to Judaism and opposed the drift to secular humanism. There was an article in WaPo in 2015 that dealt with the question of whether High Holidays services should refrain from touting Dem party themes because Republicans might be offended. The response was that there were no Republicans.

[JonniePolyester]

This was a superb lecture. Who would have thought trying to predict the end of the world from a anthology of cobbled together, censored, mistranslated, hagiographic, committee determined ( Council of Rome 382) would end in a Great Disappointment when in 1843 the world didn’t end?

[garethsmith]

The Goldwater quote is from Thomas Paine

[joehiggs]

Does anyone now believe that the USA is a Christian country? A great lecture, as usual.

[timothyrday]

It's fascinating because the SDA is still roundly criticized by its fellow Protestant denominations. Believe what you may about the SDA, they are one of the most impressive and organized movements I've ever seen.