breezy reading? some of it is funny. there's a fine sence of humor behind some of what they write. And they scold people in ways I find entertaining. Forinstance, chapter 2, entitled Among the Second Adventists, Millenarians, and Age-to-Come Believers: 1869-1874, has this gem:
"Some considerable nonsense has come from the pen of Ralph Orr, one time editor and writer with the World Wide Church of God (Armstrongites). Orr asserted that Wendell predicted the return of Christ for 1874 and that he was responsible for the 2520 year count for the Times of the Gentiles. He says that after the failure of 1874, Wendell “replaced” that date with 1914. None of this is true. Gomes and Bowman suggested that Wendell provided a Seventh-day Adventist influence. This piece of utter nonsense should bring a sense of shame to the authors and their publisher Zondervan, though it probably does not. Wendell influenced Russell only in the two ways he mentions, awakening Russell’s interest in prophecy and satisfactorily answering his questions about the injustice of the Hell-Fire, endless torment doctrine."
They address an academic audience but sometimes is ways you'd expect from someone comfrotable sitting in you living room and explaining the mysteries of the universe in terms you can understand. (Okay, so I exaggerated). I notice they trash Zydeck's book. They make detail tell an engaging story. In volume two, which they'll release later, they take up the mass circulation of Food for thinking Christians. There's a whole narrative concerning events in Newark taken from a New York Newspaper. It's entertaining and informative.
I hope people buy this book. I want to keep these two at their projects. No one else is doing this.