Oswalt, John N. 1940- (John Oswalt, John Newell Oswalt)

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Oswalt, John N. 1940- (John Oswalt, John Newell Oswalt)

PERSONAL:

Born June 21, 1940, in Mansfield, OH; son of Glenn Starr (a farmer) and Mildred (a teacher) Oswalt; married Karen Kennedy, 1962; children: Elizabeth, Andrew, Peter. Ethnicity: "European-Caucasian." Education: Taylor University, A.B., 1961; Asbury Theological Seminary, B.D., 1964, Th.M., 1965; Brandeis University, M.A., 1966, Ph.D., 1968. Politics: Republican. Religion: United Methodist.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Jackson, MS. Office—Wesley Biblical Seminary, 787 E. Northside Dr., Jackson, MS 39286. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Barrington College, Barrington, RI, assistant professor of biblical studies, 1968-70; Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, KY, assistant professor, 1970-74, associate professor, 1974-79, professor of biblical languages and literature, 1979-82; Asbury College, Wilmore, president-elect, 1983, president, 1983-86; Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL, professor of Old Testament and Semitic languages, 1986-1989; Asbury Theological Seminary, professor of Old Testament and Semitic languages, 1989-99; Wesley Biblical Seminary, Jackson, MS, research professor of Old Testament, 1999—.

MEMBER:

Society of Biblical Literature, Institute for Biblical Research, Evangelical Theological Society.

WRITINGS:

(Under name John Oswalt) Where Are You, God?, Victor Books (Wheaton, IL), 1983, revised edition published as Where Are You, God? Perspectives on Our Response to Injustice and Suffering, Evangel Publishing House (Nappanee, IN), 1998.

The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1-39, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 1986.

(Under name John Oswalt) The Leisure Crisis, Victor Books (Wheaton, IL), 1987.

(Old testament editor) The Wesley Bible: New King James Version; A Personal Study Bible for Holy Living, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1990.

The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40-66, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 1998.

Called to Be Holy: A Biblical Perspective, Evangel Publishing House (Nappanee, IN), 1998.

(Under name John Oswalt) Isaiah: The NIV Application Commentary; From Biblical Text to Contemporary Life, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 2003.

Contributor to books, including What You Should Know about Homosexuality, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 1979; and Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Moody, 1980. Contributor to Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible and International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Contributor to scholarly journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Biblical scholar John N. Oswalt divides his time between writing and serving as a research professor at Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. He once told CA: "I write as an expression of my Christian faith and out of a deep desire to make Biblical faith understandable and accessible to current readers. Most of my book-length writing is done during periods of leave from my normal teaching assignments. I need uninterrupted blocks of time so that the ‘creative juices’ can begin to flow."

One of Oswalt's works is the two-volume commentary, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40-66, which was reviewed by Patricia K. Tull in Interpretation and Harold R. Mosley in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. In this work, a follow-up to Isaiah 1-39, the author states that Isaiah of Jerusalem, an eighth-century prophet, authored the entire book. Mosley complimented Oswalt for his "strong stand for the unity of authorship in Isaiah." However, Tull suggested that Oswalt "caricatures other views, delivers either/or oppositions, and tends to assert his position rather than argue it." Despite her reservations, Tull concluded that readers "can nevertheless benefit from his detailed work." Mosley commended the author's work, calling the book "the commentary on Isaiah 40-66 for which many evangelical Bible students have been waiting." He compared Oswalt's book favorably to a three-volume work on the same subject by E.J. Young, noting Oswalt's "comprehensive coverage of this portion of Scripture from an evangelical perspective." Mosley concluded: "This volume will prove to be one of the classic evangelical approaches to Isaiah 40-66…. Oswalt provides a scholarly, yet reverent approach to Isaiah."

Other works by Oswalt take a more personal approach to the scriptures. Where Are You, God? uses the writings of the prophet Malachi to address the question of whether God leaves people to fend for themselves. In 1999 Oswalt published Called to Be Holy: A Biblical Prespective, which traces analytically the doctrine of holiness as expressed in the Old and New Testaments. In his approach, he demonstrates that the concept of an individual ‘holiness’ can be found throughout the text of the Bible.

"I am deeply committed to the proposition that the Bible is a revelation from God and that, as such, it is highly relevant to the needs and concerns of all peoples," Os- walt once explained to CA. "When it is understood in the context of its world, the ancient Near East, the truths of the Old Testament are often startling in the immediacy of their application to a modern technological age."