Prophetess of Health: A Study of Ellen G. White (Library of Religious Biography Series)

Respected historian of science Ronald Numbers here examines one of the most influential, yet least examined, religious leaders in American history -- Ellen G. White, the enigmatic visionary who founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Numbers scrutinizes White's life (1827-1915), from her teenage visions and testimonies to her extensive advice on health reform, which influenced the direction of the church she founded. This third edition features a new preface and two key documents that shed further light on White -- transcripts of the trial of Elder Israel Dammon in 1845 and the proceedings of the secret Bible Conferences in 1919. Historian Of Science Ronald Numbers Here Examines One Of The Most Influential, Yet Least Examined, Religious Leaders In American History - Ellen G. White, The Enigmatic Visionary Who Founded The Seventh-day Adventist Church. Numbers Scrutinizes While's Life (1827-1915), From Her Teenage Visions And Testimonies To Her Extensive Advice On Health Reform, Which Influenced The Direction Of Adventism.--jacket. Preface To The Third Edition -- Preface To The Revised Edition -- Preface To The First Edition -- Introduction: The Historian As Heretic / By Jonathan M. Butler -- A Prophetess Is Born -- In Sickness And In Health -- The Health Reformers -- Dansville Days -- The Western Health Reform Institute -- Short Skirts And Sex -- Whatsoever Ye Eat Or Drink -- Fighting The Good Fight -- Afterword: Ellen Ehite On The Mind And The Mind Of Ellen White / By Ronald L. Numbers And Janet S. Numbers. Ronald L. Numbers. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Ellen G. White, Seventh-day Adventist prophetess, ranks with the Mormon Joseph Smith, the Christian Scientist Mary Baker Eddy, and Charles Taze Russell of the Jehovah's Witnesses as one of four 19th-century founders of a major American religious sect. Yet, outside her own church of 2.5 million members, she is probably the least known. Her comparatively unsensational life and her church's reticence to expose her private papers to the scrutiny of critical scholars have contributed to this undeserved obscurity. By her death in 1915 she had founded one of the nation's largest indigenous denominations, created a string of sanitariums and hospitals stretching from Scandinavia to the South Pacific, and inspired an educational system without peer in the Protestant world today. She had traveled widely, lectured extensively, and written dozens of books on a variety of subjects. Few contemporaries, male or female, accomplished more. - Preface.