Retrospective summary and present understandings

Unlike modern allegations of plagiarism against a novelist or journalist, Ellen White’s use of sources is inextricably linked to questions about the nature of inspiration and assumptions about how inspired writers ought to write. Ellen White’s critics maintain that where an uninspired source is identified in her writings, it negates any divine influence in the message being communicated. The message has to be 100 percent original revelation or it is a mere human production. For Canright, that Ellen White copied historians, often rewrote what she had previously written, and used secretaries was enough to prove that she was not inspired. ^{28D. M. Canright, Life of Mrs. E. G. White, Seventh-day Adventist Prophet: Her False Claims Refuted (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing, 1919), 200, 205.}UEGW 151.3

Ellen White’s defenders did not deny that she had incorporated material from other authors in her writings. However, they did dispute the assumption that “ inspired” also meant “ original” W. C. White and D. E. Robinson emphasized the divine source of Ellen White’s knowledge. They pointed to the original themes found in her books. While there had been countless histories written about the Christian church and the Reformation, they argued that one could not point to any other book like The Great Controversy, with its overarching view of the conflict between Christ and Satan and its outplay in future events. Ellen White used Adventist and non-Adventist authors to aid in telling her story.UEGW 151.4

Regarding the extent of Ellen White’s borrowing, it is clear that until the 1970s her critics and supporters alike had underestimated both the amount and the classes of material involved. For the most part, Ellen White’s borrowing in The Great Controversy and Sketches From the Life of Paul was confined to areas that could be defined as “descriptive,” “historical,” or relating to “prophetic and doctrinal exposition.” ^{29As in W. C. White and Robinson, “Brief Statements,” 12.} More challenging for her defenders has been the question of why acknowledgments of this usage were not provided in her books— apart from The Great Controversy—and how to understand Ellen White’s statements that appear to deny such borrowing.UEGW 151.5

In the light of the many decades of ongoing discussion and research, we may summarize present understandings of Ellen White’s use of sources as follows. ^{30The categories of issues, but not the summaries that follow, are adapted from Roger Coon’s “Issues and Answers: Ellen G. White and Plagiarism,” Ministerial Continuing Education program 7463 (1994).} UEGW 152.1