church history thesis statement

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Dissertations

Dissertations from 2022 2022.

Isaac Newton as a Prophetic Interpreter , Kenneth Jørgensen

An Analysis of the Use of the Writings of Ellen G. White in the Views of Herbert Douglass and Woodrow Whidden on the Human Nature of Christ , Cyril Marshall

"The Best Man That Ever Trod Shoe Leather" and His "Crown of Glory" : The Personal Relationship of James and Ellen White, 1845-1881 , Gerson Cardoso Rodrigues

Dissertations from 2019 2019

Islam, Christianity, Traditional Religions and Power Politics in Northern Nigeria Since Pre-Islamic Period , Emmanuel M. Abar

Dissertations from 2018 2018

Worship Music As Spiritual Identity: An Examination Of Music In The Liturgy Among Black And White Adventists In The United States From 1840 To 1944 , David A. Williams

The Origins And Antecedents Of Joachim Of Fiore's (1135-1202) Historical-Continuous Method Of Prophetic Interpretation , Dojcin Zivadinovic

Dissertations from 2017 2017

Toward A Model Of The Ontology Of The Divine Indwelling Of Humans: A Comparative Study Of John Wesley And John Cobb , Cory Wetterlin

Dissertations from 2016 2016

Trust and Doubt: Perceptions of Divine Inspiration in Seventh-day Adventist History (1880-1930) , Denis Kaiser

Dissertations from 2011 2011

The Development of the Seventh-day Adventist Understanding of Ellen G. White's Prophetic Gift, 1844-1889 , Theodore N. Levterov

Biblical Sources in the Development of the Concept of the Soul in the Writings of the Fathers of the Early Christian church, 100-325 C.E. , Thomas W. Toews

Dissertations from 2010 2010

Principles of Church-State Relationships in the Writings of Ellen G. White , Marcio D. Costa

A Historical-Contextual Analysis of the Final-Generation Theology of M. L. Andreasen , Paul M. Evans

The Origin, Development, and History of the Norwegian Seventh-day Adventist Church from the 1840s to 1889 , Bjorgvin Martin Hjelvik Snorrason

Dissertations from 2009 2009

The Role and Status of the Catholic Church in the Church-State Relationship Within the Roman Empire from A.D. 306 to 814 , Jean Carlos Zukowski

Dissertations from 2008 2008

The 1919 Bible Conference and its Significance for Seventh-day Adventist History and Theology , Michael W. Campbell

Dissertations from 2005 2005

Reactions to the Seventh-day Adventist Evangelical Conferences and Questions on Doctrine 1955-1971 , Juhyeok Nam

Dissertations from 2002 2002

The Historical Background, Interconnected Development and Integration of the Doctrines of the Sanctuary, the Sabbath, and Ellen G. White's Role in Sabbatarian Adventism from 1844 to 1849 , Merlin D. Burt

Dissertations from 2001 2001

The Historical Development of the Religion Curriculum at Battle Creek College, 1874-1901 , Medardo Esau Marroquin

Dissertations from 1997 1997

A Comparative Study of the Sabbath Theologies of A.H. Lewis and J.N. Andrews , Siegfried H. Roeske

Dissertations from 1996 1996

The Colton Celebration Congregation: a Case Study in American Adventist Worship Renewal 1986-1991 , Viviane Haenni

Dissertations from 1995 1995

The Sanctuary and the Three Angels' Messages 1844-1863: Integrating Factors in the Development of Seventh-day Adventist Doctrines , Alberto R. Timm

Dissertations from 1993 1993

William Clarence (W. C.) White: His Relationship to Ellen G. White and Her Work , Jerry Moon

Dissertations from 1991 1991

Church, Sect, and Government Control, a History of Seventh-Day Adventists in Austria, 1890-1975 , Daniel Heinz

Dissertations from 1987 1987

James White and the Development of Seventh-day Adventist Organization, 1844-1881 , Andrew Gordon Mustard

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Thesis Statements

What is a thesis statement.

Your thesis statement is one of the most important parts of your paper.  It expresses your main argument succinctly and explains why your argument is historically significant.  Think of your thesis as a promise you make to your reader about what your paper will argue.  Then, spend the rest of your paper–each body paragraph–fulfilling that promise.

Your thesis should be between one and three sentences long and is placed at the end of your introduction.  Just because the thesis comes towards the beginning of your paper does not mean you can write it first and then forget about it.  View your thesis as a work in progress while you write your paper.  Once you are satisfied with the overall argument your paper makes, go back to your thesis and see if it captures what you have argued.  If it does not, then revise it.  Crafting a good thesis is one of the most challenging parts of the writing process, so do not expect to perfect it on the first few tries.  Successful writers revise their thesis statements again and again.

A successful thesis statement:

• makes an historical argument
• takes a position that requires defending
• is historically specific
• is focused and precise
• answers the question, “so what?”

How to write a thesis statement:

Suppose you are taking an early American history class and your professor has distributed the following essay prompt:

“Historians have debated the American Revolution’s effect on women.  Some argue that the Revolution had a positive effect because it increased women’s authority in the family.  Others argue that it had a negative effect because it excluded women from politics.  Still others argue that the Revolution changed very little for women, as they remained ensconced in the home.  Write a paper in which you pose your own answer to the question of whether the American Revolution had a positive, negative, or limited effect on women.”

Using this prompt, we will look at both weak and strong thesis statements to see how successful thesis statements work.

While this thesis does take a position, it is problematic because it simply restates the prompt.  It needs to be more specific about how  the Revolution had a limited effect on women and  why it mattered that women remained in the home.

Revised Thesis:  The Revolution wrought little political change in the lives of women because they did not gain the right to vote or run for office.  Instead, women remained firmly in the home, just as they had before the war, making their day-to-day lives look much the same.

This revision is an improvement over the first attempt because it states what standards the writer is using to measure change (the right to vote and run for office) and it shows why women remaining in the home serves as evidence of limited change (because their day-to-day lives looked the same before and after the war).  However, it still relies too heavily on the information given in the prompt, simply saying that women remained in the home.  It needs to make an argument about some element of the war’s limited effect on women.  This thesis requires further revision.

Strong Thesis: While the Revolution presented women unprecedented opportunities to participate in protest movements and manage their family’s farms and businesses, it ultimately did not offer lasting political change, excluding women from the right to vote and serve in office.

Few would argue with the idea that war brings upheaval.  Your thesis needs to be debatable:  it needs to make a claim against which someone could argue.  Your job throughout the paper is to provide evidence in support of your own case.  Here is a revised version:

Strong Thesis: The Revolution caused particular upheaval in the lives of women.  With men away at war, women took on full responsibility for running households, farms, and businesses.  As a result of their increased involvement during the war, many women were reluctant to give up their new-found responsibilities after the fighting ended.

Sexism is a vague word that can mean different things in different times and places.  In order to answer the question and make a compelling argument, this thesis needs to explain exactly what  attitudes toward women were in early America, and  how those attitudes negatively affected women in the Revolutionary period.

Strong Thesis: The Revolution had a negative impact on women because of the belief that women lacked the rational faculties of men. In a nation that was to be guided by reasonable republican citizens, women were imagined to have no place in politics and were thus firmly relegated to the home.

This thesis addresses too large of a topic for an undergraduate paper.  The terms “social,” “political,” and “economic” are too broad and vague for the writer to analyze them thoroughly in a limited number of pages.  The thesis might focus on one of those concepts, or it might narrow the emphasis to some specific features of social, political, and economic change.

Strong Thesis: The Revolution paved the way for important political changes for women.  As “Republican Mothers,” women contributed to the polity by raising future citizens and nurturing virtuous husbands.  Consequently, women played a far more important role in the new nation’s politics than they had under British rule.

This thesis is off to a strong start, but it needs to go one step further by telling the reader why changes in these three areas mattered.  How did the lives of women improve because of developments in education, law, and economics?  What were women able to do with these advantages?  Obviously the rest of the paper will answer these questions, but the thesis statement needs to give some indication of why these particular changes mattered.

Strong Thesis: The Revolution had a positive impact on women because it ushered in improvements in female education, legal standing, and economic opportunity.  Progress in these three areas gave women the tools they needed to carve out lives beyond the home, laying the foundation for the cohesive feminist movement that would emerge in the mid-nineteenth century.

Thesis Checklist

When revising your thesis, check it against the following guidelines:

• Does my thesis make an historical argument?
• Does my thesis take a position that requires defending?
• Is my thesis historically specific?
• Is my thesis focused and precise?
• Does my thesis answer the question, “so what?”

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