Read with new eyes

How Avondale Academic Press helps us better understand Scripture, theology and church heritage

Avondale Academic Press, established in 1994, publishes books and journals that have academic merit and that reflect the vision, mission and values of Avondale College of Higher Education. The editor of the press is Associate Professor Robert McIver. He has helped revitalise the press, which has now published more than a dozen titles, about half over the past two years. Signs Publishing Book Editor Nathan Brown asked McIver about the press and its products.

How have you revitalised Avondale Academic Press?
Publications are important to academics and to the institutions for which they work. This is particularly so for staff members at Avondale as the college continues on its journey toward university college status. As our staff continue to write and to publish, the press has had a lot more material from which to draw.

We’ve also co-published a couple of titles—Biblical and Theological Studies on the Trinity and Hermeneutics, Intertextuality and the Contemporary Meaning of Scripture—with ATF Theology, an imprint of the Australasian Theological Forum. This gave the titles a wider audience beyond the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

What books did Avondale Academic Press publish this past year?
We published three books in 2015: Grounds for Assurance and Hope: Selected Biblical and Historical Writings of Bryan W Ball; Changing Attitudes to Science within Adventist Health and Medicine from 1865 to 2015; and South Pacific Perspectives on Ordination.

The studies on ordination were completed for the Biblical Research Committee of the church in the South Pacific as it studied women’s ordination prior to the vote on the issue at the 2015 worldwide church session. I’m very pleased we made the studies available to a wider audience, and that Signs Publishing made them available through Adventist Book Centres.

The book about the changing attitudes to science within Adventist health and medicine is between printings. It will be available again later this year and will prove of interest to those who want to know more about the views taken of science by Adventist health institutions and medical practitioners.

Bryan gathered key chapters from earlier publications and added a few more new ones. Grounds for Assurance and Hope is an 80th birthday commemorative selection reflecting his academic interests, including Puritan history and belief, the authority of the Bible and the history of English translations of the Bible, as well as theological topics such as redemption and eschatology.

Why are the books published by Avondale Academic Press important, even though they tend to be small print runs?
Our books give serious attention to subjects of interest to the Adventist Church and to Avondale. They’re well researched and presented for use by other academics, especially those who don’t identify as Adventists. The church in the South Pacific does many good things that, without these books, wouldn’t otherwise be widely known in academic circles.

Why does academic scholarship matter to the church?
Academic scholarship matters to a church that concerns itself with truth. Adventists have always prided themselves on their attention to biblical studies and to careful presentation of matters of spiritual importance. Our books help the church better understand Scripture and theology and its own heritage.

How do you hope your work contributes to the church, particularly in the South Pacific?
Avondale Academic Press makes a significant contribution to the work of the church, especially in the South Pacific, because it enables the publication and distribution of manuscripts that wouldn’t otherwise find a suitable publisher.