God's Strange Work

<DIV><I>The fascinating story of an intriguing -- and little understood -- religious figure in nineteenth-century America</I><BR /><BR /> 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. 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. <BR /><BR /> Or so the story goes.<BR /><BR /> The truth -- revealed here -- is far less titillating but just as captivating. In fact David Rowe argues Miller was in many ways a mainstream even typical figure of his time.<BR /><BR /> Reflecting Rowe's meticulous research throughout <I>God's Strange Work</I> does more than tell one man's remarkable story. 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. Rowe rescues Miller from the fringes and places him where he rightly belongs -- in the center of American religious history.</DIV>