Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University’s Pruet School of Christian Studies will host Dr. John Walton in a guest lecture Monday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Performing Arts Center. He also will be on campus the following day to speak in chapel and Christian studies classes.

Additionally, Walton will meet with student members of Theta Alpha Kappa at lunch on Tuesday, March 9, to discuss issues related to a career as a scholar. At 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Walton will be available to meet with students interested in exploring the possibility of graduate study at Wheaton College’s Biblical Exegesis program.

Walton has served as a professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., since 2001. “He is a highly respected scholar who has focused on how knowledge of the history and culture of the ancient Near East helps readers understand the Old Testament,” said Dr. Doug Nykolaishen, OBU assistant professor of Biblical studies.

Walton earned his bachelor’s degree at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., and his master’s degree from Wheaton. He earned his doctorate in Hebrew and cognate studies from Hebrew Union College’s Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio, and wrote his dissertation on the tower of Babel. Walton has written a number of influential books including Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context and Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament and is a coauthor of The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament.

One of his most recent books is The Lost World of Genesis One, which “presents important new insights that should not be ignored by those entrenched on either side of the creation/evolution debate,” Nykolaishen noted.

Francis S. Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, called Walton’s analysis in The Lost World of Genesis One “profoundly important,” and said that it “eliminates any conflict between scientific and scriptural descriptions of origins."

“We have invited Dr. Walton to come to campus to address these topics for students as well as faculty—especially those students and faculty in Christian studies and the natural sciences,” Nykolaishen said, “but also for any who are interested in these important matters.”

For more information, contact Dr. Doug Nykolaishen at [email protected] or (870) 245-5337.

By Meg Gosser