The Great Controversy Unplugged. Ideology of a Religious Classic

Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Theology - Biblical Theology, grade: 1.0, Kwame Nkrumah University, course: Biblical Theology, language: English, abstract: This article critiques Ellen G White's classic, "The Great Controversy", an account of how the conflict between Christ and Satan has panned out in history, beginning with the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE. The article uncovers the ideological underpinnings of The Great Controversy which includes a literalistic approach to apocalyptic literature using the insights of Teun A. van Dijk "Ideology and discourse analysis." While the hermeneutical vicissitudes of The Great Controversy are understandable in the light of nineteenth century biblical interpretation, the book is open to criticism in the light of the historical-critical method of interpreting scriptures associated with the likes of Hermann Gunkel and Julius Wellhausen, to name two of its progenitors. One way to understand what is going in The Great Controversy is to postulate a literary technique common to the apocalyptic genre of Vaticinium ex Eventu which Ellen G White, along with many of her contemporaries construed as futuristic.