Robert Bowman Interview Transcript

The following transcript is from an Apologetics 315 interview with Robert Bowman. Original audio here. Transcript index here. If you enjoy transcripts, please consider supporting, which makes this possible.

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BA: Hello, this is Brian Auten of Apologetics315. Today’s interview is with Robert M. Bowman Jr., the Director of Research at the Institute for Religious Research. He is the author of nearly sixty articles, and of a dozen books, and these include, Faith Has Its Reasons: Integrated Approaches to Defending the Christian Faith, Twenty Compelling Evidences That God Exists  and also, Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ. The purpose of this interview is to learn a bit more about Rob and his work, take a look at apologetic methodologies, and get his advice for those defending the faith. Well, thanks for joining me today Rob.

RB: My pleasure.

BA: Well, first off, I want to thank you for your work. Two of your books that I’ve read have been a couple of my favorites -- Faith Has Its Reasons, and Twenty Compelling Evidences That God Exists. And I think both are excellent, so I look forward to getting to some of your other titles in the future.

Resurrection of Jesus: Interview with Gary Habermas

Do extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence? What sort of evidence is there for the resurrection? In this audio provided by 4Truth.net, Robert Bowman interviews Dr. Gary Habermas on the resurrection of Jesus. Habermas is a leading expert in the resurrection, with over 15 books on the subject. Audio found here at 4Truth.net.

Full Interview MP3 Audio here (65 min)

Enjoy.

Robert Bowman Apologetics Audio

If you have heard the recent interview with Robert M. Bowman, you may also be interested in listening to some of his courses he taught with Reclaiming the Mind's Theology Program. If so, you can download all of the electives with this RSS feed. Or see each audio file available below, each with its own RSS feed for easy downloading or adding to iTunes.

World Religions (RSS)
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
The Historical Jesus (RSS)
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Science and the Bible (RSS)
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Apologetics Methods (RSS)
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Understanding Mormons & Jehovah's Witnesses (RSS)

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Introduction to Christian Apologetics (RSS)

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19

Also added to the Ultimate Apologetics MP3 Audio page.
Enjoy.

Apologist Interview: Robert M. Bowman

Today's interview is with Robert M. Bowman, Jr. - the Director of Research at the Institute for Religious Research. He talks about his background, his work with IRR, the reasons for examining apologetic methodology, four basic categories or approaches to apologetics (classical, evidential, reformed, fideistic), apologetic questions and meta-apologetic questions, the sorts of methodological questions one should consider, understanding presuppositionalism, finding an integrated approach to defending the faith, historical examples of apologists with a well-rounded approach to apologetics, advice to apologists, and more.

Full Interview MP3 Audio here (47 min)

Books by Robert M. Bowman include:
• Faith Has Its Reasons: Integrative Approaches to Defending the Christian Faith
• 20 Compelling Evidences That God Exists
• Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ
• Jehovah's Witnesses
• Sense and Nonsense about Heaven and Hell
• Sense and Nonsense about Angels and Demons

Enjoy.
Subscribe to the Apologetics 315 Interviews podcast here or in iTunes.

Faith Has Its Reasons by Ken Boa & Rob Bowman Free Download

In light of Apologetics315's recent review of Faith Has Its Reasons by Ken Boa and Rob Bowman, it seemed good to re-publish this blog post with their book available online in PDF format for free. Each chapter's PDF can be downloaded for printing/reading. Other great free text from Ken Boa here.

0 - Introduction - Front Matter
1 - Defining Apologetics
2 - A Brief History of Apologetics
3 - Issues and Methods
4 - Classical - Apologists
5 - Classical - Classical Apologetics
6 - Classical - Rationality of the Christian Worldview
7 - Classical - Limits of Reason
8 - Evidentialists - Apologists
9 - Evidentialist Apologetics
10 - Evidentialist - Presenting Evidence
11 - Evidentialist - Interpretation of Fact
12 - Reformed - Apologists
13 - Reformed - Reformed Apologists
14 - Reformed - Taking Every Thought Captive
15 - Reformed - Authority of Revelation
16 - Fideism - Apologists
17 - Fideism - Fideist Apologists
18 - Fideism - Calling People
19 - Fideism - Subjectivity of Faith
20 - Integrative - Apologists
21 - Integrative - Contending for the Faith
22 - Integrative - Reasons for Hope
23 - Integrative - Speaking the Truth in Love
24 - Afterword 25 - Appendix 26 - Bibliography

Other good stuff can be found at Ken Boa's site.
Enjoy.

Book Review: Faith Has Its Reasons: An Integrative Approach to Defending Christianity by Kenneth Boa & Robert Bowman

Faith Has Its Reasons: An Integrative Approach to Defending Christianity by Kenneth Boa & Robert Bowman is an apologetics handbook weighing in at over 600 pages. The book contains twenty-three chapters. The authors systematically define apologetics, outline a brief history of apologetics, and then do an in-depth survey of five categories of apologetic methodology. A full inspection of all the contents of this book is beyond the scope of this review, which will aim simply to outline the Boa and Bowman’s content and judge the book’s overall usefulness.

Book Review: 20 Compelling Evidences that God Exists by Ken Boa & Rob Bowman

20 Compelling Evidences that God Exists: Discover Why Believing in God Makes So Much Sense by Kenneth D. Boa and Robert M. Bowman Jr. is a concise yet powerful case for Christianity presented in twenty very readable chapters. The style is engaging, the authors know their subject, and the book is surprisingly substantial for its modest 200 pages. Boa and Bowman’s goal is to present a compelling case for Christianity.

As the title suggests, 20 Compelling Evidences offers just that: cumulative evidence for the God of Christianity. However, the reader should be aware of what this book is not. This isn’t a book of “twenty undeniable proofs” for the existence of God; the authors do not present formal or tedious arguments in each chapter for the existence of God. Instead, the chapters build upon one another in order to provide an overall case for the rationality and truth of Christianity. Although the title claims that the evidences are compelling, the authors quickly acknowledge: “if someone doesn’t want to believe in God, no amount of evidence can force such a person to accept God’s existence as fact.”1

Featured Apologetics Podcast: The Theology Program

Here's a great link to The Theology Program's Electives podcast. This podcasts includes:

• Christian Apologetics Methods with Dr. Rob Bowman (9 MP3's)
• Introduction to Christian Apologetics with Dr. Rob Bowman (19 MP3's)
• Christian Philosophy of Religion with Dr. Paul Copan (9 MP3's)

Subscribe here in iTunes.

Enjoy.

Apologetics Course with Rob Bowman MP3 Audio

Reclaiming the Mind Ministries presents Introduction to Apologetics, taught by Rob Bowman.

Part 1a | Part 1b | Part 2a | Part 2b | Part 3a | Part 3b | Part 3c | Part 4a | Part 4b | Part 5a | Part 5b | Part 6a | Part 6b | Part 7a | Part 7b | Part 8a | Part 8b | Part 9a | Part 9b

Course syllabus PDF here.

Enjoy.