In his book "Can I Get a Witness?", Brian K. Blount reads the Book of Revelation through the lens of African-American culture and specifically through the lens of the Black Church. The book is short, and is by no means exhaustive; rather, it gives readers a taste of what reading the biblical text(s) through a particular lens can lead to unique interpretations, applications, and insights that others who look at the same text(s) from a different lens would never have seen.

What Blount has done is beautiful and necessary. I read this book quickly, and I will definitely come back to it again. Each chapter is filled with fresh exegetical insights and surprising 21-century applications of the Apocalypse. For Blount, the entirety of Revelation is a call to nonviolent active resistance via witnessing openly and publicly that Jesus is King. The resistance of the Asian Christians in Revelation may have been nonviolent, but in no way is the resistance presented as ineffective. Rather, via such nonviolent active resistance, Satan is cast down to earth and the Beast (Rome) is conquered (Rev 12). In all of this, Blount sees many parallels with the experience of African Americans and that of the Black Church.

Finally, the last chapter, entitled "The Rap against Rome," brought this book to an incredible climax. By comparing the Revelation hymns, scattered throughout the book, to not only spirituals and gospel music, but to the rebellious and resistant music of rap/hip-hop, Blount has opened up my eyes to a new way of viewing John: "John the hymnist was John the rapper!" Anyone with their eyes to Scripture and their ears to Kendrick, Tupac, and Kanye will recognize and appreciate the connections Blount draws in this closing chapter.