2026-2027 Faculty Research Grants

Yuri Drumi (World Mission). 

SDA Church in Nazi Germany: Missiological Paradigm and Practice.

The mission of the SDA church in Nazi Germany is a sensitive issue. It has been studied by some Adventist scholars and theologians in the past, but it appears that the results of their research have not been properly followed up. More needs to be done to make the mission in extraordinary circumstances under the Nazi regime in Germany a subject for comprehensive theological and missiological reflection with the aim of teaching the church, its leaders and pastors the principles of ministry in the event of similar circumstances arising in the future. The purpose of this research project is to study the missiological paradigm of the church, developed by German Union leaders in response to the extraordinary circumstances of being forced to live under the Nazi regime. Below are the primary research questions:

1. What theological considerations guided the leaders of the Adventist Church in Germany in proposing a particular course of action for pastors and ordinary believers in a situation where state propaganda imposed a single, racist view of events?

2. How did the church understand its mission in those circumstances?

3. What role did the church’s higher leadership, based at the denominational headquarters in Silver Springs, MD, play in this process?

4. How did church leaders assess their own actions during the Nazi regime after this ideology and the regime that implemented its main tenets had been defeated?