Does the Book of Revelation scare you?

You are not alone.

Many of us were terrified by the sermons and studies we heard from this book. But what if I told you Revelation is actually good news and can be preached to encourage, not condemn? What if I told you that it should not be read as "a countdown til the end"? 

Dr. Brian Blount, President and Professor of New Testament at Union Presbyterian Seminary and the author of Can I Get A Witness?: Reading Revelation Through African American Culture and Revelation: A Commentary will lead this Exegesis Lab on the Book of Revelation.  This session will begin with a conversation between Dr. Blount and me on Revelation. Next, he will lead is through a passage of his choosing as he shares with us 
  • strategies for interpreting Revelation (what questions we should ask)
  • key things to  consider
  • what we should be mindful of  and what we should avoid when interpreting
  • suggested resources  
  • some "preaching roads" the passage could take us down 

Guest Instructor

Dr. Brian K. Blount

Brian K. Blount is President and Professor of New Testament at Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, VA and Charlotte, NC. He was called to this position in 2007, after serving for 15 years as the Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Princeton Theological Seminary. An M.Div. graduate of Princeton Seminary in 1981, he obtained his B.A. from the College of William and Mary in 1978. After graduating from Princeton Seminary, he went on to become the pastor of the Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church in Newport News, Virginia and then received his Ph.D. in New Testament Studies from Emory University .

Professor Blount’s primary work has been in the Gospel of Mark, the Book of Revelation and in the area of cultural studies and hermeneutics. He is the sole author of six books:

  • Cultural Interpretation: Reorienting New Testament Criticism (Fortress, 1995)
  • Go Preach! Mark’s Kingdom Message and the Black Church Today (Orbis, 1998)
  • Then The Whisper Put on Flesh: New Testament Ethics in an African American Context (Abingdon 2001)
  • Can I Get A Witness? Reading Revelation Through an African American Lens (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005)
  • Revelation. A Commentary in the New Testament Library Series (Westminster John Knox Press, 2009)
  • Invasion of the Dead. Preaching Resurrection (Westminster John Knox Press, 2014)


In 2010, his Revelation commentary was voted the 2009 top reference work by the Academy of Parish Clergy. Dr. Blount is married, and he and his wife, Sharon, have two children, Joshua and Kaylin.