Adventism, like most new religious groups, had sectarian roots. Stark and Bainbridge define sectarian as having high tension with society; they measure tension in terms of difference, mutual antagonisms, and separation from society [1980:49]. Using that definition, this essay argues that early Adventism was highly sectarian, and that it retained much of its tension with society for several decades
Published by ronaldllawson
Retired professor of history and sociology who has spent 30 years studying especially the changes in the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a result of it becoming global, with a clear majority of its members from the Developing world. I visited 60 countries for interviews in the process. I here make available to non-sociologists the papers I have published and presented at academic meetings on Adventism and also comparing Adventism's growth and spread with that of two other groups born in the US in the same century--Mormons (Latter-day Saints) and Jehovah's Witnesses.
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Ronald L. Lawson Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Queens College, CUNY 