Stéphane
I want to paint the portrait of the
book and tell its qualities as I judge them, without unveiling if possible the
treasures of its contents, nor the discoveries and the surprises waiting there
for the reader.
The 2 volumes of Separate identity,
and a third one under preparation, constitute the first real reference work of
historians addressing the birth and the first decade of the Watch Tower
movement, from the double point of view of its doctrinal evolution and its
progressive rise and turbulent development.
.
The works of Herodotus are entitled
Histories, of a Greek word meaning inquiry or investigation : for the first
time ever, it is to such a work of investigation, a patient, comprehensive, in-depth
as well as objective and impartial work, that the two historians Rachael de
Vienne (until her death last year) and Bruce Schulz devote themselves, since
over 15 years.
This innovative work not only brought
to light novel discoveries, but standing as a true work in progress, the
research, as it went along and was enriched with new elements, sprang up,
opening new pathways to explore, requiring new developments (some of them
important enough to necessitate a supplementary third volume).
It
inaugurates a new decisive step of the research into the history of the Watch
Tower — the movement and the magazine —, characterized by an increased
granularity (or level of detail) of several orders of magnitude.
Thanks to their rigorous method, and
their attention to telling details, Schulz and de Vienne’s research stands out
from the works of previous authors who wrote about this period of the Watch
Tower history, whose works are often mostly superficial, patchy, and simply
rehashing earlier works, or accommodating to the recourse to second or even
third-hand sources — when not downright biased or polemical.
They also stand apart from the
official history works published by the Watchtower Society, which are as a rule
insufficiently documented, despite their custody of the archives of the
movement, and sometimes inaccurate, and notoriously rushed, due to the lack of
time or thinking imposed by editorial constraints (short deadlines,
apologetical pretensions).
It took historians almost 140 years
to submit the issues of the first years of the Watch Tower, for a start, to a
close and systematic reading, followed by a classification and a sound analysis.
Rather than their heavily redacted Reprints that omit not only a vast amount of
items rejected as irrelevant, but also a number of important contributions, — either
for having been penned by redactors having dissented in the meantime, or for
dealing with doctrines no longer finding favor, — the original issues of the
magazine offer to the investigator, besides in-depth articles on doctrinal
topics and debates, a rich palette of announcements of any kind, of news echos,
of travel, mission and even accounting reports, together with an abundant “Letters
to the Editor” section. No serious study should skimp on, sweep, dispense with,
avoid, obviate this invaluable collection of facts, it is the non disposable
starting point of any research worthy of the name.
Not only did the authors exploit
this corpus as the basis of their work, especially in Volume 2 of Separate
Identity, but they extended their review to the innumerable papers, newspaper
articles, discourses, tracts, and to the 6 volume collection, that flowed from
the prolific pen of Charles Russell.
Then, to resituate the teachings of
Russell and his followers, as well as their progressive elaboration, they
confronted them systematically with those of the dissenting groups or of groups
related by a community of doctrine, through an examination of their respective
writings.
They particularly committed
themselves to unscramble Charles Russell’s investigations in the perilous field
of the final ends’ chronology, but they have above all deepened the analysis of
the dual concern which is at the centre of his message, — focused on the merits
of the Ransom by Jesus Christ, — as well as the contradictory reactions it had
to elicit, either of fierce rejection, or of enthusiastic reception : viz. the
blasphemous lie of the eternal torment reserved to almost all humans, in total
contrast with the bright perspective of the times of the “restitution of all
things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the
world began“ as heralded by St. Peter in his founding speech of Christianity at
Pentecost.
To describe the sequence of events
that shaped the life of the movement, its growth, its evangelism and its trials
and tribulations, and to place them in the context of the time, they performed
a multitude of cross-checks with an abundant harvest of documents, often never
seen before, gained after a tireless hunt for newspaper articles, narratives,
books, yearbooks, catalogues, family genealogies, obituaries, official papers,
not to forget an array of old photographs… this monumental documentary base not
having benefited from any access to the official archive held by the Watchtower
Society, except for a handful of documents made available in dribs and drabs,
and one single photograph — a proof, if needed, of the independence of the
research and its lack of sponsoring.
A similar approach was followed to
reconstruct the biographies of as many people as possible mentioned in the
movement’s documents, even when they appear under a simple name: first-day
followers, collaborators, propagandists, missionaries, traveling speakers,
occasional correspondents, up to and including opponents of the movement.
The outcome of this untiring hunt
for documents and original sources followed by their exploitation (classification,
analysis, interpretation), results in a voluminous data set made of a myriad of
details. Thanks to the talent of the authors, the synthesis of this accumulation
of well established facts, being anything but rebarbative, blends into a
harmonious whole of a teeming richness.
As can be seen by consulting its
table of contents, Volume 2 articulates on 16 chapters that fit together like
the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle providing a picture of the movement and its
evolution seen from various angles : foundation and beginnings of the movement,
segregation from the mainstream churches, organization into congregations,
launch and funding of a huge publishing ministry, starting and extension of the
evangelism, expansion of the field of activity to the United Kingdom, Canada,
China, Africa, as well as the European Marches of the Ottoman Empire.
The narrative, full of life, at
times even thrilling as an adventure novel, interweaves with a portrait gallery
presenting a variety of characters, often endearing, sometimes heroic, less
frequently unsympathetic, and more than a few particularly colourful.
The book opens with two prefaces
where each of the authors begins by expressing a more personal view — and lets
show through his or her own style — about their intentions, their expectations,
their working method, the obstacles encountered, their opinion about the
current state of research, and specifically the irreducible discrepancies
between Russell and the Adventists. These exordia introduce a very elaborate
monograph by Rachael de Vienne that broadens the project horizon, situating the
characteristic teachings of the movement within the wider context of the
history of Christian doctrines.
The book ends with a To-be-followed :
in an Afterword, it evokes the crisis that shook the movement around the year 1881,
and led it to affirm its specificity by assuming a separate (organizational) identity,
— thus reaching the conclusion of the research —, defering the detailed
development of the circumstances to a third and final (?) volume of the series.
Last but not least, Volume 2
incorporates no less than 1813 notes, and quite as many references, an eloquent
invitation to plunge into the original sources, and why not, pursue the
research…
