Olive J. Hemmings

Education Profile:

PhD, Claremont Graduate University
MA, Andrews University
BA, Northern Caribbean University

Biography:

Olive Hemmings has been teaching in Seventh-day Adventist higher education since 1982.  She earned the M.A. in New Testament and Biblical languages from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University in 1989, and the Ph. D. in Theology, Ethics, and Culture from Claremont Graduate University in 2004. Olive taught at Northern Caribbean University for 15 years, and has been teaching at Washington Adventist University since 2002. She is an ordained minister of Columbia Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and pursues a yearly itinerary of preaching and teaching.She is engaged in an active writing/publication ministry mainly on topics of current ethical concerns in church and society, with the prophetic origins of the gospel as reference. As past president of the Adventist Society for Religious Studies (the major professional society for SDA Theology/Religion Professors worldwide), she remains active in the progress of the church’s self-understanding and mission. 

Research and Professional Activities:

Her major publication Sacred Texts and Social Conflict is a case study of the debate over women’s ordination in the Seventh-day Adventist Church to demonstrate the ways in which sacred texts function as the site of power for communities in conflict. Her great passion for the Gospel of Christ emerges from a strong sense of purpose sustained by the grace of God.