Abstract:
This thesis comparatively analyzes Ellen White's and Walter Brueggemann's understanding of the Sabbath's function as a distinctive sign of the covenant and a testimony to God's character in contexts of judgment. The objective is to identify convergences, divergences, and theological-practical implications for Sabbatarian theology. The research falls within the area of concentration Religion, Theology, and Society, which addresses and problematizes the relationship between Religion, Theology, and Society and its interface with the public and religious sphere, considering, among other things, aspects of the history of tradition, the Church, and Theologies. It is also linked to the research area History and Theology, which deals, among other things, with the history of Church tradition and the development of ecclesiastical and theological thinking. Methodologically, this is a bibliographical, analytical-comparative, and intertextual research, constructed from a review of the primary and secondary literature of the two authors, seeking to examine them from their own hermeneutical horizons, in order to avoid anachronisms and reductionisms and to compare not only isolated statements, but as theological macrostructures that connect judgment, covenant, witness, worship, and social life. The results show, firstly, that, in White, pre-advent justice constitutes a coherent and central theological structure, in which sanctuary, prophetic historicism, the great conflict, the concept of remnant, mission, and hope are intertwined, so that the Sabbath appears as God's seal, a sign of loyalty in an eschatological scenario of judgment and selections a criterion of worship in the final conflict. Secondly, the research demonstrates that, in Brueggemann, the metaphor of judgment functions as a hermeneutical key to Old Testament theology, and that the Sabbath emerges as a distinctive testimony of the covenant, a public practice of resistance to empire, the logic of scarcity, the commodification of time, and the economic colonization of life. The comparison reveals as the main convergence the fact that, in both systems, the Sabbath operates as a visible practice of belonging to divine authority and as a publicly verifiable sign-testimony of covenantal loyalty. The differences, however, remain relevant: in White, an apocalyptic-eschatological, forensic, and soteriological framework predominates; while in Brueggemann, a canonical-prophetic, rhetorical, and socioeconomic framework predominates. It can be concluded, therefore, that the categories "seal of God" and "distinctive testimony" are not equivalent, but are functionally comparable, allowing us to understand the Sabbath simultaneously as a historical expression of fidelity, a public semiotics of the covenant, and a theological critique of rival powers that dispute time, spirit, and human life]
