Robert Lowery

I just saw an advertisement of a new book released by InterVarsity Press, Jesus Made in America: A Cultural History from the Puritans to the Passion of the Christ by Stephen J. Nichols. How Jesus has been perceived throughout American history is its focus. I am looking forward to reading it.

As I reflected on the title and as we celebrate our independence, I must remind myself that Jesus is not a Savior dressed in red, white and blue.

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Years ago when I began my teaching ministry I made a promise to myself and a public one to my students that I would do my best to keep myself fresh over the years by continuing to read new books and articles and revise syllabi and class notes. (Surely you recall the professor who was using the same set of lecture notes thirty years later as well as the same textbooks!)

The two, new readings and new editions of syllabi, go hand-in-hand. The former feed the latter. In recent months two important resources have come to my attention, and they will impact the syllabus I will be posting for my Fall class on Revelation.

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Photo by Robert Frank in Newsweek

I like to read books on photography, and not just those dealing with the mechanics of taking pictures but especially those focusing on the philosophy of photography. In the June 2, 2008 issue of Newsweek, an article by Malcolm Jones entitled "A Terrible Beauty" accompanied by a black and white photograph caught my attention. The piece introduced me to the work of a little-known Swiss emigrant named Robert Frank. His landmark photography book The Americans turns 50 this year.

Jones informs the reader that when the book of photographs was first published, it was overlooked, selling only 600 copies its first year. But time has proved its important contribution and influence. The book was released at the height of the cold war. Americans were worried about the bomb and juvenile delinquency. The civil rights movement was in its infancy. Prosperity abounded. Describing the work "like a slap in the face," Jones tells us that there are only a couple of smiling faces in the whole book. More often than not, people are distracted, suspicious, angry. The picture accompanying the article is of "a New Orleans streetcar, with white people up front and African-Americans in the back" and captured the nation’s racial divide. (As I looked at the picture, I pondered it in light of the coming election; the scene is still relevant.)

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Well before the second semester ends I begin making up a list of books I want to read during the summer, Lord willing.

I know that I am still in the opening chapter of what the digital revolution will produce in the next few years and its impact on my writing and reading. As a general rule, the Internet appeals to a different kind of reader. When I wrote my book I envisioned the majority of my readers purchasing it, sitting back in their favorite La-Z-Boy chair, adjusting the light, pen and paper in hand, and spending several hours devouring its contents by looking up the hundreds of Scriptures I cite. But I also wanted to reach those readers who would read it on the laptop computers; hence the book was published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems out of Bellingham, Washington.

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Before you purchase another book, please go to Amazon and order a copy of The Literary Study Bible (English Standard Version), edited by Leland Ryken and Philip Graham Ryken (Wheaton, Il: Crossway Books, 2007). Please.

Every other year I teach a class entitled "How to Read the New Testament as Literature." While acknowledging that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, we need to keep in mind always that the Bible is inspired literature. The implications are profound. For example, it simply will not do to read individual verses or paragraphs of a book of the Bible, divorcing those units from the Story of the particular book in which they are found. Or it does no good read a book of the Bible without placing that book’s Story within the larger context of the STORY of the Bible. We need to approach the Bible as if it were divided into sixty-six chapters, and we must understand the relationships between those chapters.

The Literary Study Bible, based on a fine translation, will be of immense help to you in becoming a better student of Scripture. Let me offer some remarks:

• You will be able to explore in detail the Bible’s story lines, complex characters, historical settings, literary genres, motifs, theological themes, imagery, and important terms.
• You will be able to appreciate even more both the simplicity and the complexity of the Bible as a whole as well as individual books of the Bible.
• You will be shocked to see the unity of a book when you read it without chapter and verse divisions. It is printed in single column, paragraph format.
• In the introduction you will be put at ease by the way the editors deal with why some resist reading the Bible as literature (Fallacy #2 The idea of the Bible as literature is a modern idea that is foreign to the Bible itself).
• In the introduction you will be introduced to twelve literary features of the Bible (a unifying story line or the presence of a central character).
• You will be blessed as you read through a book of the Bible by the sidebars dealing with important topics.
• It is not a verse-by-verse study but rather it helps the reader see how what they are reading fits into the context of the book and ultimately of the Bible.
• The author’s intended meaning is made clearer by the notes, layout, etc.
• The editors treat the Bible with proper respect and authority.

I have only one complaint: the font is too small. But remember this: The one writing the review turns 60 this year and wears trifocals (progressive lens at that!).

What a marvelous gift to give to yourself. And to a new disciple . . . or even an old one.

Photo by Heather

Continued from Part I

I read to become an expert in an area that is not focused on my teaching ministry. I doubt if there is another New Testament professor who has read all of the lyrics penned by Bob Dylan or the biographies and critical analyses of his poetry. (Check out Stephen H. Webb’s excellent study, Dylan Redeemed: From Highway 61 to Saved!)

I read big and small . . . I do not know how many times I have read Parker Palmer’s small jewel, Let Your Life Speak. I am currently working my way through Leland Ryken’s Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, just beginning the entries under letter "D"!

I read personally and professionally. Years ago when I became a professor, I made a commitment that I would never, ever, God-willing and health-permitting, allow myself to become stale, to stop reading. I have seen that happen to many professors and preachers and others. Even when I read in an area where I have read tens of thousands of pages, and even when perhaps 80% of it I already know, there is still that 20% and there are still new ways that I can learn how to present the material that I have taught countless times.

Yet I must not neglect this truth: I read for fun, for the sheer pleasure of escaping into another era, another place, another world (sometimes not of this world). I read not for seminary lecture or for sermon preparation but to be moved, to cry, to cheer, to learn an area, to giggle. . .

I read deeply and lightly. I have learned to read at least one to two incredibly difficult books a year. But I also read Garrison Keillor.

I read locally and globally. I read books (including commentaries and other theological writings) by people not from my heritage or country. I read novels by Eastern Europeans. I read books recommended in top ten lists.

I do not do speed reading. I usually read slowly. But the more I have read, the faster I have been able to read. Contradictory, you say? It isn’t to me.

I love the thrill of reading . . . of buying a new book, going to used bookstores and bookstores selling new books. . . . It is like the first day of grade school–the new pencils, the pad of paper, a ruler, a compass (What is that you ask? Watch the History Channel sometime!), erasers . . . To crack open a box of crayons and then pour them out and marvel at all of the colors. . . . I love the adventure of entering a bookstore to visit my favorite sections–biography, new novels, music, poetry, westerns, short stories, photography . . . I love to ask people "What have you been reading lately?" and jot down their responses on a napkin or a slip of paper or on my Pocket PC. . . . I love the chase . . . the escape . . .

Some final thoughts . . . I read because the Truth and truths set me free. . . . I read because I cannot do anything less. . . . I cannot not read. I read because then I live and preach and teach and equip others out of the overflow. I cannot begin to recount the times when preaching or teaching or in a conversation or in writing a chapter or an article, something I have read pops into my mind and I make use of it.

I read because we must be a people of books, especially of The Book. My mother wrote in my first preaching Bible the following words:

My Dear Son, It is my prayer that you will always follow the teachings of this book. May it always remind you that through the years he is the greatest and the most educated person who ever lived, and yet his teachings were simple enough that everyone could understand them. My son, use your wisdom to win others to him. May God grant you the power to continue to serve him all your life. An education is very important but most important is the education of others for Christ. Let your education be a tool for Christ and not a tool for man. December 26, 1969

In the midst of reading millions of words and pages, I must remember this:

Woe am I if I know the words without knowing the Word.

For more on Dr. Lowery’s reading habits, see the previously-posted Reflections on My Bible Reading Habits.

Tags: books, reading, recommendations

Photo by Mor (bcnbits)

God likes books. . . He is a compulsive writer, and he wants us to be compulsive readers!

Jesus liked books; he even asked a group of scholars on one occasion: "Have you not read?" (Matt. 19:4). As a child growing up in first century Galilee, Jesus would have learned how to read (Yes, Jesus did not enter this world fully equipped to read! See Luke 2:52.) As he attended school at the synagogue, the rabbis would have used Leviticus as a first grade primer, so to speak. Why Leviticus? Because of its two themes: Our God is a holy God and he calls us to be a holy people. Another reason is its repetition of vocabulary.

Paul liked books. One of my favorite verses is his request of Timothy recorded in II Tim. 4:13 — "When you come, bring . . . my scrolls, especially the parchments."

Even the apostle John refers to the importance of books — See Rev. 5:4 and 10:9-10. He refers to one of the most important books that will ever be read, someday by God himself (Rev. 20:11ff.; see also Rev. 3:5, a not-so-subtle-threat that one’s name can be removed from that book of life!) The book of Revelation is to be read, not sealed up (Rev. 22:10). The verse links up with Rev. 1:3 where there is the assumption that the book will be read aloud and obeyed.

I like books. No–I love books! "So many books, so little time," I read on a sweatshirt in a bookstore one day. How true! It is easy for me to say "Amen" to a statement by the eighteenth century English critic, Holbrook Johnson: "Books are food, libraries of so many dishes of meat, served out for several palates. . . . We eat them from love or necessity, as other foods, but most from love."

I read out of necessity. I also read out of love for truth and grace. God’s books balance grace and truth, always.

It started with my little read reading book entitled We Look and See by William S. Gray, et al. I was graduated from red to blue to yellow to green. I loved the adventures of Dick, Jane, Baby, Spot, Puff, Tim, and a cast of other characters.

I truly believe that reading is fun and that reading is fundamental for my growth as a Christian.

I am often asked related questions: How do I read? What and whom do I read? When do I find time to read?

Let me ramble. . .

I read constantly and persistently. I am addicted to reading. If I am waiting in a restaurant and my companion is late, I will read anything I can get my eyes on. If I am waiting in someone’s kitchen or living room, I will read what is tacked to the side of the refrigerator or what is on the coffee table. If I am waiting in line at Wal Mart, I will scan the news magazines (without picking them up!) . . . Just the other day I was in the local pharmacy waiting for a prescription to be filled, and I found myself reading medicine labels . . . If I am waiting at a railroad crossing, if I don’t have a book or magazine in the car, I will read the graffiti on the sides of the rail cards . . .

I read at least a book a week, while having around ten to twelve books going at the same time. Why? Because if I am not interested in one subject (a book on photography, perhaps), perhaps I am interested in another (the latest novel by John Grisham or Daniel Silva).   I can only recall starting one book in the last thirty years and not finishing it. I persist, even if a volume may take me over a year to complete.

I read critically and freely. I am not afraid to take on new authors or subjects. Mortimer Adler’s book, How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading has had an incredible impact on m y life. It challenged me to stretch myself, to be moved out of my comfort zone by reading new authors and exploring new subjects. I am not afraid to evaluate what I read. Just because a book has been published doesn’t mean that it is good or even true or accurate. You don’t simply embrace all that is read but you engage. Engagement is a prerequisite for embracement or rejection. Engage before you embrace or exclude.

I want to give a word of caution. I believe there is too much Christian "lite" reading by Christian readers. I would rather read a book by Henri Nouwen than a book by John Maxwell or even George Barna. To me, there is a theological depth, a Biblical undergirding found in Nouwen that is not found in a Maxwell or a Barna. I would rather read Eugene Peterson’s Reversed Thunder: The Praying Imagination of St. John a thousand times than one page from The Left Behind series. If the Lord tarries, a hundred years from now, Peterson will still be read when no one, absolutely no one, will be reading Jenkins and LaHaye!

I read widely and narrowly. I am almost, almost, convinced that it is a sin to read only "sacred" or "Christian" literature. Years ago I was taught that "All truth is God’s truth"–no matter who says it , no matter where it is found, no matter when it was written. Novels, for example, mirror our culture, our times. Theology is found in more than just theology books! Read the latest Stephen King novel and you surely are struck with the notion that the man is searching for something to give perspective to the evil and the good at work in our world.

I read at least one book each year in each of the areas that our seminary offers majors in–Bible, Theology, History, Counseling, World Mission, Education, Worship, etc. In reading so widely I find that connecting points, bridges, networking–whatever metaphor you want to use–takes place. One area informs another area.

Of course, I read narrowly. I am a specialist in the area of New Testament studies, and yet I read in the Old Testament more and more because I cannot undertand the former without a knowledge of the latter.

More in Part II

For more on Dr. Lowery’s reading habits, see the previously-posted Reflections on My Bible Reading Habits.

Tags: books, reading, recommendations

As I continued work on my commentary on Revelation during the summer months, I often wonder what people will be saying about our preaching, teaching, writing, etc. when they review manuscripts a hundred years from now. This morning I took a book off of my shelf and re-read a section from it, a section written that summed up the author’s evaluation of exegesis in medieval times. F.W. Farrar’s History of Interpretation (1886) is a classic (I read it many years ago and have returned to it from time to time). On pp. 300ff. he offers some helpful reflections:

“It is always an evil to create any discontinuity between ourselves and the past. It has not been my object to hunt out the details of ancient error; still less to glory in the superiority of modern insight. If we are compelled to study and to point out errors of the past, it should be in a spirit of humility, and not of malice; it should be that we may faithfully learn, not vainly triumph.”

After referring to a number of medieval scholars, Farrar continues: “If they had left nothing else to the Church, they have left the best of all legacies–the legacy of holy lives and an immortal example; the legacy of men who during years of unselfish sincerity spurned delights and lived laborious days. The writings of some of them will be always valuable for the spirit of deep devotion which they breathe, for high moral teaching, for profound philosophical and theological investigation. But their lives were better than their learning. They had found Christ, even though they read His name by wrong methods. . . . {Their} exegesis demonstrates the amazing vitality of error; the fatally stupefying effects which result from the attempt to crush free inquiry under the leaden weight of authority and tradition; the hopeless insecurity of super-structures, even when they have been elaborated with the utmost care and skill, which have been based on shallow, imaginary, or untested foundations. But the sadness of these facts is irradiated by one truth of which they furnish the strongest evidence. It is that the Bible may be obscured for centuries by bad translations, and buried under mountainloads of valueless and erroneous exposition; that it may be withheld from the ignorant, and grossly mis-interpreted by the learned; that it may even be abused as a bulwark of immense follies, and a pretext for enormous crimes; and yet there is in the truths which constitute its essence so divine a preciousness, so innate a force, that never in any age has it ceased to teach men the way of salvation, never has it lost the power to brighten happiness and to console affliction, to inspire men with courage for the amelioration of social wrongs, for the overthrow of popular idols, for the assault on ancient errors, for the restatement of forgotten and neglected truths. Men may still continue to misunderstand and misrepresent it; to turn it into a grim idol or a mechanical fetish; to betray it with the kiss of false devotion, and to thrust it between the soul and the God Whom it was designed to reveal; but to the end of all time–and herein consists is divine authority–it shall guide the souls of the humble to the strait gate and the narrow way which leadeth to eternal life . . .”

I almost stopped typing out such a long quotation for this post, thinking that it was taking too much time, but the more words I typed, the faster I typed. Why? Because I needed to revisit them. My spirit was touched by such kind and bold words. Indeed, I wished I had written these words. What I can do is remember them and hide them away in my head and my heart and bring them out into the daylight when I think I have arrived in total understanding of anything.

Eschatology (literally “the study or belief about the last things”) is a slippery word and is often narrowly defined to refer to those events immediately preceding, accompanying, and following the final return of Jesus. Too often the subject is discussed in the final chapters of a theology book when it really embraces the entire Bible.

When I use the word in relation to the New Testament, I refer to the entire history of Jesus Christ as the content of eschatology, not simply his resurrection and return in glory. Hence, the subject has to do not with “the last things” but with the person of Christ, who is the first and the last One. In particular, the “End” began in Jesus Christ and yet we await the “End.” What is specifically characterized as New Testament eschatology includes both an “inaugurated” (the present fulfillment of the kingdom and the blessings we enjoy as followers of Jesus) and a “future” eschatology (events that are still future—the final coming, the final judgment, the new heavens and new earth, etc.).

If you want to pursue this general subject, some helpful resources are:

Bauckham, R. and Hart, T. Hope Against Hope: Christian Eschatology at the Turn of the Millennium. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.

Conyers, A. J. The Eclipse of Heaven: Rediscovering the Hope of a World Beyond. Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1992.

Hill, C.C. In God’s Time: The Bible and the Future. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

Hoekema, Anthony A. The Bible and the Future. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979.

Lewis, Daniel J. 3 Crucial Questions About the Last Days (3 Crucial Questions). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1998.

Riddlebarger, Kim. A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times. Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 2003.

Travis, Stephen H. I believe in the second coming of Jesus. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982.

________. The Jesus hope. Waco: Word, 1974.

Venema, Cornelis P. The Promise of the Future. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2000.

Zorn, Raymond F. Christ Triumphant: Biblical Perspectives on His Church and Kingdom. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1997.

Technorati Tags: Bible, Revelation, books, eschatology, end times

Jump over to the Writings page and you’ll see some new resources: a comprehensive New Testament exegetical tools bibliography (an oft requested item) as well as topical study guides for elders, deacons, and other church leadership themes.