Festschrift for Robert Lowery

Unfortunately, Dr. Robert Lowery is largely unknown in the world of New Testament Scholarship.

Thankfully, he is a widely recognized teacher in the independent Christian church and mentor to hundreds of seminary students throughout his thirty-five year teaching career. Whenever I teach on Revelation, or people find out I'm a seminary student at Lincoln Christian University, the question is inevitably asked, "Do you know Dr. Lowery?" His influence is palpable among parishioners and their pastors throughout the Christian church.

Only in the last five years has Dr. Lowery sought to publish the fruit of his life-long study of Revelation. It's not that Dr. Lowery is not  capable of writing well, though if you asked him he'd probably say it isn't his primary gift. Rather, he made a conscious choice for his primary investment to be his students. In the contemporary climate of higher education with a "publish or perish" mentality, the ideal teaching position usually entails as little interaction with students as possible. Much the contrarian in this regard, Dr. Lowery has always seen his primary investment to be the people he trains to read and teach scripture for the church. It is only fitting, then, that his legacy be celebrated with a book of essays, many written by his former students, providing insight into John's Apocalypse.

Dragons, John, and Every Grain of Sand is edited by Shane J. Wood, a Ph.D candidate at the University of Edinburgh and recently appointed professor of New Testament at Ozark Christian College. Shane is a fine scholar, gifted preacher and engaging teacher. He has also compiled an interesting collection of essays dedicated to his mentor. The book is neatly divided into three sections, (1) "Dragons" - general studies in Revelation, (2) "John" - difficult texts in Revelation, and (3) "Every Grain of Sand" - application of Revelation. Contributers include such notables as Craig A. Evans, Craig L. Blomberg, I. Howard Marshall (Lowery's doktorvater), and Mark E. Moore, among many others. The goal of the book is to honor Dr. Lowery by doing what he spent his life working on -- hearing and heeding the book of Revelation.

I highly recommend you pick up the book here.I'll be featuring reviews of some of the chapters in the next few weeks. Free to read along and engage the mystery of John's Revelation.