The fascinating story of an intriguing -- and little understood -- religious figure in nineteenth-century America Calvinist Baptist preacher William Miller (1782-1849) was the first prominent American popularizer of using biblical prophecy to determine a specific and imminent time for Christ\'s return to earth.
Rowe rescues Miller from the fringes and places him where he rightly belongs -- in the center of American religious history..
It encapsulates the broader history of American Christianity in the time period and sets the stage for many significant later developments: the founding of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the tenets of various well-known new religious movements, and even the enduring American fascination with end-times prophecy.
Reflecting Rowe\'s meticulous research throughout, God\'s Strange Work does more than tell one man\'s remarkable story.
In fact, David Rowe argues, Miller was in many ways a mainstream, even typical figure of his time.
The truth -- revealed here -- is far less titillating but just as captivating.
Or so the story goes.
On October 22, 1844 -- a day known as the Great Disappointment - he and his followers gave away their possessions, abandoned their work, donned white robes, and ascended to rooftops and hilltops to await a Second Coming that never actually came.
The fascinating story of an intriguing -- and little understood -- religious figure in nineteenth-century America Calvinist Baptist preacher William Miller (1782-1849) was the first prominent American popularizer of using biblical prophecy to determine a specific and imminent time for Christ\'s return to earth
