Why did I decide to come to Durham?
When I applied to UK schools, I was considering Cambridge, Oxford, Aberdeen, St. Andrews and Durham. Graham Stanton was retiring and Markus Bockmuehl was switching to St. Andrews, so I decided not to apply to Cambridge. I was rejected at Oxford, but that turned out for the best since they often require American students to begin with a Masters at Oxford - which I didn’t want to do. So, by SBL 2005, it was down to St. Andrews, Aberdeen and Durham.
Several months before applying, I was in email contact with some of the professors at these institutions. At Aberdeen, Simon Gathercole was my main contact and was very friendly and encouraging. Also, a friend of mine (Ben Reynolds) was working with him already and had many nice things to say about him. At Aberdeen, I had a couple of email exchanges with Bruce Longenecker. At Durham, I was primarily in contact with John Barclay - a very warm person and he offered excellent advice and was willing to critique several drafts of my research proposal!
When I went to SBL, I had just received word that I was accepted to Aberdeen to work with Gathercole. I went to the Scottish universities reception and visited briefly with him - it would have made an excellent choice, but my only hesitation was that there were many Americans at Aberdeen and I wanted more of a true European experience. I chatted briefly with Longenecker also and he rememebered my application and told me that they were impressed with my educational background, but not with my proposal in particular - they wanted to know if I had any other ideas. I felt like Aberdeen would have been good enough and that I did not want to stress myself out by trying to manage another thesis topic over the next few months while working full-time. The only downside was that if I decided to work in the Gospels at St. Andrews, Longenecker said it would have been possible to work with Richard Bauckham for my first year - that would have been a real treat.
I also attended to Durham reception, hoping to meet John Barclay, but he had to cancel his trip to SBL. I did get a chance to meet Loren Stuckenbruck (an American professor at Durham). Loren did rememeber my application and he really impressed me with how nice he was and extremely encouraging. Just interacting with him was a major reason why Durham went to the top of the list.
Shortly after I left SBL, I received an email that I had been accepted to Durham. Now it was decision-making time.
Because I was assigned to work primarily with John Barclay, most of my professional mentors encouraged me to go with Durham over Aberdeen. Scott Hafemann, in particular, mentioned that Durham was a kind of ‘best kept secret’ for NT in England since it is not overcrowded with Americans, but very strong in Biblical Studies. It was just before Christmas 2005 that I accepted a place at Durham.
When it comes down to it, my choice was based on the strength of the ’staff’ (the British term for the ‘faculty’). In both Old and New Testament, Durham has a history of excellence in scholarship and supervision and that was a primary strength. Also, I did not want to work with a curmudgeon who only criticized me and was suspicious of any evangelical theology. I am who I am, I try to be fair and objective insofar as I am able, and life is too short to be stressed out all the time.
Now that I have spent some time here in Durham, some additional advantages to being here are: (1) an amazing location for the theology department - on the palace green with the castle and cathedral; (2) prime location in the country for visiting Edinburgh, London and Manchester; not to mention being close to the coast; (3) though it is sometimes a bit dreary, overall the weather is not that bad; (4) N.T. Wright; (5) Durham has a reciprocal exchange relationship with the University of Tubingen so we can go there and make use of their German facilities and resources; (6) Durham has an exchange program with Duke University in the US, and students can study there for a period as well.
What is life like for a PhD student?
Well, every student will give you a different story. British programs thrive on self-motivation, independent research, and a hands-off approach to supervision. Basically, there is no typical schedule, but here is how I, being a type-A kinda guy, organize my schedule.
In the first year, if you are new to the University, it is not uncommon for PhD students to ‘audit’ a few masters courses (which they call modules here). How many? I would say it depends on your needs, desires and the basic agreement you have made with your supervisor. I would say four courses would be too many. I am auditing two and it seems about right. However, some supervisors see your first year as a time of general introduction to your field and may advise you to audit several courses. Other supervisors would recommend not to bother with courses at all. So, for me, I spend about 10 hrs a well in class and preping for class (a course on the LXX, and a course on Paul and his Interpreters).
Since you only have three years to get this 100,000 word project completed, most supervisors want you researching and writing ASAP. So, you are more or less expected to be actively engaged in your thesis research 30 hours a week in your first year and closer to 40 in the second and third. I am doing about 20-25.
Language study is essential to NT work and in your first year it is generally expected that you will learn or improve your German, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and possible French. If you can get some Latin in, that would be nice. I try to do some Greek and French or German weekly - about 5 hours a week.
Let’s be honest: in England you have to factor in walking time - I spend about 5-7 hours a week walking to and from the library and the palace green.
Did you think the work stopped at 40 hours a week? Not likely, I spend another 3-4 hours a week writing reviews for various journals I am in contact with and each week I am inevitably occupied with a doctoral workshop, seminar or discussion group.
One of the disadvantages of Durham is that theology students do not have a dedicated study space where you can leave your books and have a desk and lamp. So, I work mostly at home and sometimes in the library. Other universities, like Edinburgh or Aberdeen do offer such workspaces and that can be a real blessing! Well, I guess at home I have a fridge!
What are classes like?
I can only offer you my impression from the two I attend. They are generally small - no bigger than 20. They entail more interaction than just sitting and listening to a lecture. YOu can raise questions, give comments, etc…I feel more comfortable engaging in the discussion because I feel that people want to hear and learn from each other. On the downside, it seems there is less direct information given in a systematic fashion in class. You are left to learn the material on your own.
What do you do when you meet with your supervisor?
When I arrived, given the changes that will inevitably take place in the direction of your research, I switched supervisors to Stephen Barton - as capable as John Barclay and equally pleasant. The nature of the relationship is different from one supervisor to the next. SOme are more structured and organized with specific advice. Others act more as sounding boards and facilitate your thesis ‘journey’. My experience is the latter. Often I write a piece of work related to my topic, and Stephen reads it ahead of time and offers feedback, criticism, corrections, etc… In this early stage he is really offering structural and methodological criticism, making sure that my overall organization and approach is appropriate. I am sure later the nature of the advice will be different.
As I have come along, I have realized that you really want your supervisor to be either one of two kinds of people. Either you want him/her to be a real expert in your field who knows every last detail of the who’s and the when’s and the what’s of the history of research in your areas - so they can play devil’s advocate and insure that you have not forgotten any prominent issues or ‘voices’ in the dicussion. Or, you want to make sure that your supervisor, if not particularly an expert in your area, is a tenured generalist - someone who has been in the general field long enough to have seen it all (someone like Jimmy Dunn who has been around for a while and just knows whats going on). Otherwise, you may get good feedback about whether your argument makes sense or not, but you may get blindsided by your external reader who will hammer you on significant sins of omission. My supervisor is a good blend of both an expert in my areas (Social-historical issues of worship in the early church, holiness in the NT) and a generalist who is acquainted with a wide range of fields.
Have you found a good church (or two) that you’d recommend in or around Durham? When we arrive in the Fall my wife and I would prefer to attend a non-charismatic evangelical church of any size with decent expository preaching. Are there any like that in the area? Also, have you had a chance to attend the Cathedral for a worship service? If so, how was your experience, and how often does ‘Bishop Tom’ preach at that venue?
By: John on March 21, 2007
at 4:34 pm
