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Robert M. Bowman Jr.Director of the Research Institute for Religious Studies, American evangelical Christian theologian
Country:
 USA |
Content:
- Early Life and Influences
- Academic and Early Career
- Doctoral Studies and Disputes
- Return to CRI and Ministry
- Apologetics and Research
- Authorship and Publications
- Counter-Cult Apologetics
- Theological Perspectives and Influences
Early Life and Influences
Robert M. Bowman Jr., an acclaimed American evangelical Christian theologian, was the eldest of seven children born in 1975. His father, Robert M. Bowman, was an academic and former USAF colonel. Raised Roman Catholic, Bowman converted to evangelicalism in college.
Academic and Early Career
In 1981, Bowman earned a Master of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary, where he met his wife, Kathleen Lyon. They had four children: Beth, Robbie, John, and Maria. In 1984, he joined the Christian Research Institute (CRI) in Southern California as a researcher and editor under the leadership of Walter Martin.
Doctoral Studies and Disputes
From 1988 to 1990, Bowman pursued his Ph.D. in Historical and Theological Studies at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He completed his dissertation requirements in early 1992, but the seminary did not award him the degree.
Return to CRI and Ministry
Bowman returned to CRI in 1990, where Hank Hanegraaff became president after Martin's death in 1989. In 1992, Hanegraaff dismissed Bowman. For the next fourteen years, Bowman primarily worked as a freelance writer and occasional lecturer, notably at Luther Rice Seminary and Biola University.
Apologetics and Research
In 2002, Bowman became president of Apologetics.com and hosted a weekly radio show on Los Angeles station 99.5 KKLA. From 2006 to 2008, he was Director of Apologetics and Interfaith Evangelism for the North American Mission Board in Alpharetta, Georgia, an agency of the Southern Baptist Convention. Since 2008, Bowman has worked at the Institute for Religious Research (IRR), initially as Executive Director and more recently as Director of Research.
Authorship and Publications
Bowman has authored or co-authored over sixty articles and ten books, including five collaborations with Oxford-trained scholar Kenneth D. Boa. Two of Bowman's books have received the Gold Medallion Book Award. His early works primarily critiqued the doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Counter-Cult Apologetics
Since 1984, Bowman has been associated with the Christian Countercult Movement. He has worked with CRI, the Watchman Fellowship, and IRR. His approach to counter-cult apologetics emphasizes biblical and theological principles, focusing on biblical hermeneutics.
Theological Perspectives and Influences
Bowman's early theological and apologetic influences included C. S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, and John Warwick Montgomery. At Fuller Theological Seminary, he encountered fideistic traditions in Christianity that stressed the primacy of faith over reason. Influenced by Cornelius van Til, Bowman pursued presuppositional apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary.
