The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers

The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers is a 4 volume work by Le Roy Froom containing 3955 pages published from 1946 to 1954. Each volume has a bibliography that typically ran 30-plus pages and cite hundreds of sources.

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The exhaustive work analyzes the understandings of Bible Prophecy of 266 theologians and scholars spanning 18 centuries beginning in the 1st century AD. The author argued that the "historicist" interpretation of Bible prophecy was the earliest and most extensively used throughout history, and that other schemes were not only novelties in comparison but had emerged as the result of attempts to deflect the condemnation of the Roman Catholic Church that typically accompanied historicist exposition.[1] It was the culmination of more than 20 years of research and writing that included three extensive trips to European libraries and archives as well as crisscrossing America.

Along with typical criticism, book reviews praised the books for scope of research and documentation and for providing a veritable mine of material from every conceivable source of millennial interpretation. An immense amount of extensive and arduous research went into the project. A vast amount of material was reviewed.

Volume titles

Volume 1: Early Church Exposition, Subsequent Deflections, and Medieval Revival (1950) 1006 pages

Volume 2: The Historical Development of Prophetic Interpretation (1948) 863 pages

Volume 3: PART I, Colonial and Early National American Exposition;
PART II, Old World Nineteenth Century Advent Awakening (1946) 802 pages

Volume 4: New World Recovery and Consummation of Prophetic Interpretation (1954) 1284 pages

List of scholars and theologians from 1st to 19th centuries

A short summary of the author's analysis of each author is found on author wikilinks listed below.

Volume 1: Early Church Exposition, Subsequent Deflections, and Medieval Revival

Volume 2: The Historical Development of Prophetic Interpretation.

Volume 3: Part I, Colonial and Early National American Exposition

Volume 3: Part II, Old World Nineteenth Century Advent Awakening

Volume 4: New World Recovery and Consummation of Prophetic Interpretation

Critical reception

Although largely substantiating the Adventist understanding of prophecy (which is historicist in nature), the work received some favorable reviews from non-Adventist scholars. When published, the first volume was praised for its value for money, the scope of its research, and its documentation.[6] Another contemporary review of the first volume noted "An astounding amount of reading, traveling, compilation, and patient research has gone into the preparation of this book", characterizing it as "a rich summary of an enormous lot of materials".[7]

An early review of the second volume described it as "a quarry of information on the subject which will be useful to scholars in many fields", though it was noted that "The historical picture is curiously distorted" due to the Adventist focus on specific prophetic interpretations.[8] This limited focus is a commonly found criticism of the work. A 1952 review of the first two volumes complimented their breadth of research, but lamented "The scope of the work is seriously delimited, however".[9]

Despite criticism of the work's limited focus,[10] the reviewer also noted "Specialists can find here a wealth of material",[11] and praised the care with which the research had been undertaken and presented.[12] In a review of the first volume, the same author spoke highly of the work's contribution to scholarship,[13] though again criticizing its narrow focus.[14]

Early reviews noted hbis skill as a historian,[15] and predicted that the work would become recognized as a standard reference on the subject.[16][17] In recent years the work is still praised for its extensive review and analysis of the history of prophetic interpretation, and is referred to as the classic work on the subject by theological scholars (as well as by secular scholars).[18] Ernest R. Sandeen, in commenting on this "monumental" work, nonetheless drew attention to the "pitfalls" facing those who follow "his guidance uncritically". While "useful as a reference work [and] astonishingly accurate", it is "virtually without historical merit when he lifts his eyes above the level of the catalog of the British Museum".[19]

See also
  •  Christianity portal
  •  Biography portal

Footnotes
  1. Morgan, Douglas (2001). Adventism and the American republic: the public involvement of a ... p. 22. Adventist historian who devoted four large volumes to tracing the roots of the Adventist method of interpreting prophecy.
  2. PFoF1 1950.
  3. PFoF2 1948.
  4. PFoF3 1946.
  5. PFoF4 1954.
  6. Renfer 1953, pp. 366–367: "For sheer number of pages the price of this volume 1 is a good investment. Its merits, however, transcend literary economics. ... The approach is strongly biographical, and the exceedingly great amount of research and documentary collection evidenced in this first volume suggest the tremendous contribution the completed work will constitute. ... The first volume takes the reader through the millennialism of Joachim of Floris, Eberhard and the Waldenses. It gathers together a veritable mine of material from every conceivable source of millennial interpretation, and the material is carefully handled. It is most advantageously documented with footnotes. ... Irrespective of the author’s viewpoint and millennial position, there is vast knowledge here which the well-informed dispensational premillennialist will want to secure."
  7. Cabaniss 1953, p. 80.
  8. Harbison 1948, p. 257.
  9. Handy 1952b, p. 551: "An immense amount of extensive and arduous research has gone into the project, and a vast amount of material is reviewed in these weighty volumes."
  10. Handy 1952b, p. 553: "The author's own particular viewpoints so dominate the work and so dictate the selection of material that it is doubtful that those who do not share them will find themselves convinced by the argument"
  11. Handy 1952b, p. 553.
  12. Handy 1952b, p. 553: "These volumes are carefully prepared, profusely illustrated, elaborately indexed, and equipped with exhaustive bibliographies and useful charts."
  13. Handy 1952a, p. 155: The author has surveyed and summarized a vast amount of material and has made it readily available – a valuable service to scholarship indeed
  14. Handy 1952a, p. 155: "He has so strained his material through the fine screen of his own particular viewpoint and restricted research interests that a well-rounded treatment of prophetism does not emerge."
  15. Aldrich 1958, p. 165: "He is recognized as the outstanding historian of the Seventh-Day Adventists."
  16. Renfer 1953, pp. 366–367a: "Irrespective of the author's viewpoint and millennial position, there is vast knowledge here which the well-informed dispensational premillennialist will want to secure. The work will remain a classic study in its field and prove of great utility for the serious student of millennial aspects of church history."
  17. Aldrich 1958, p. 165: "All the material is carefully documented and should prove interesting and helpful to both the student of church history and prophecy."
  18. Couch 2000, p. 227: "The Scholar and researcher brought together dozens of scholars, librarians, historians, and linguists who labored for decades in putting together this amazing study on the history of the teaching and the beliefs about prophecy. For years his team labored in the libraries of Europe and America scanning thousands of documents and theological writings about prophetic truth. ... 'For the sake of Covenant theologians and amillennialists, He clearly traces and points out the development of allegorical interpretation through Origen, Augustine, and others.' ... 'This set is a must buy for all teachers interested in church history and prophetic studies.'
  19. Sandeen 1970, p. 288.

References
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