Book Review: Daniel 11and the Medieval Divided Kingdoms by Perry F. Louden

Daniel 11 and the Medieval Divided Kingdoms: The Struggle between Rome and Constantinople for Church-State Supremacy by Perry F. Louden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The study of the books of Daniel and Revelation have been a hallmark of Adventism, yet in the former book there is one passage that keeps on mystifying researchers but there might be an answer. Daniel 11 and the Medieval Divided Kingdoms by Perry F. Louden proposes a different interpretation for passages of Daniel 11 that have long been debated.

The interpretation of Daniel 11:23-29 has always brought confusion to students of Biblical prophecy including Adventists. Louden using principles of interpretation consistent with Adventist theological history to bring forth his hypothesis that these verses take place between the fall of Imperial Rome and the wounding of the Papacy in 1798. The main feature of these verses that feature the continuing struggle between the Kings of the North and the South is that they represent two different church-state unions, one in which the church dominates that represents Papal Rome and the other in which the state dominates that represents the Byzantine Emperors.

While Louden’s proposition is sound and worth further study for those interested in it, his overall presentation in the book and trivial historical inaccuracies that do not undermine but could raise questions to his conclusions are issues. While the latter issue could be fixed with better editing and fact checking, those inaccuracies while not undermine his overarching proposal could cause some individuals to dismiss it out of hand without giving it any consideration. It is the presentation that Louden uses that is the biggest issue that needs to be addressed. While there are publishing errors that have footnotes covering the bottom lines of some paragraphs, page 44 most notably, the main issue was with how Louden presented his interpretations of Daniel 11: 20-39 in Chapters 6 and 9. Louden presents each verse and his suggested interpretation but then he presents a “Parallel Text” verse that can confirm his interpretation, but Louden only briefly touches upon these parallel texts in Chapter 4 of his book and no where in that chapter or at the beginning of 6 or 9 does he say he will be including those texts during his main interpretation presentation or for what reason. Thus, the reader can get confused about what is going on, if like myself, they had to put the book down for a few days before continuing to read and suddenly am dealing with these very confusing chapters. I was able to get through these parts of the book by completely ignoring the “Parallel Text” parts and focus on the main presentation then went back to discovery the reason for those “Parallel” sections but at no point did Louden really prepare the way for their inclusion at the heart of his presentation nor why they were important.

This is not to say Daniel 11 and the Medieval Divided Kingdoms should be ignored by Adventist readers interested in studying the issue Perry F. Louden highlights. I think Louden’s hypothesis should be studied and discussed, however I want to warn future readers—at least of the 2021 edition of the book—that the presentation Louden put forward was not the best and to give assistance for when they read the book.

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