THE ADVENTIST TRINITY DEBATE, PART 2: THE ROLE OF ELLEN G. WHITE

In 1846, James White dismissed the doctrine of the Trinity as "the old unscriptural trinitarian creed." ' A century later, the denomination he cofounded voted an official statement of "Fundamental Beliefs " that included belief in a Trinity.2 That a major theological shift occurred is no longer subject to debate. That most of the early leaders among Seventh-day Adventists held an antitrinitarian theology has become standard Adventist hstory3 in the forty years since E. R. Gane wrote an M.A. thesis on the topic.4 What is now disputed in some quarters is Gane's second hypothesis, that Adventist cofounder Ellen G. White (1 827-1915) was "a trinitarian monotheist." ' Since the 1980s that view has come under intense attack from some writers, mostly from outside the academic ~ornmunity. ~ Nevertheless, the renewed scrutiny of the role of Ellen White in the development of the Adventist Trinity doctrine has raised enough questions to warrant a fresh examination of the issue