Ellen G. White and female prophetic authority in the adventist tradition in Australia

Ellen Gould White (1827-1915), the prophet and joint founder of the Seventh-day Adventist church, was one of the most significant women and religious leaders of her age. This paper explores the sources of White’s prophetic authority through an examination of her activity in Australia where she lived from 1891 − 1900. It will be argued that White drew strength from the long tradition of female prophecy within radical, millennialist Protestantism which remained an active part of the religious mainstream in the United States until the mid nineteenth-century. White chose Australia to be the location of a missionary operation in order to secure the continued expansion of the Seventh-day Adventist church and to seek the fulfilment of her own prophetic vision. Although less successful than she might have wished, White’s Australian mission was probably the most ambitious adventure of her life and merits closer scrutiny.