More Research Advice from a Tenured Scholar

Today I had the privilege of having breakfast in Durham (England) with Ben Witherington III.  Ben and I have quite a bit in common.  We both went to secular universities for our undergraduate degree (he went to UNC; I went to Miami University of Ohio).  We both went to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (at very different [...]

Reflections on some of the book reviews I have done (for what its worth)

I consider myself fortunate to have received some opportunities lately to review some published dissertations for some periodicals. It has been a very good learning experience to be forced to deeply engage in someone else’s research and see any gaps in their thinking and logical inconsistencies. I am happy to say that some [...]

Nijay’s List of Top NT programs (at the request of a commenter)

Someone asked me how I would ‘rank’ NT programs in my ‘first tier’ category (see essay above: ‘Interested in a NT PhD?’)
This is challenging for many reasons: first, should it be internationally or by country?  Also, what kind of NT program – exegetically focused?  Jewish backgrounds?  Greco-Roman Backgrounds?  ‘New’ Methodologies (post-structuralism, Bhaktian influenced heremeneutics; post-colonialism?)?  [...]

German (and French?) Online Helps

A few of us at Durham were chatting about the challenges of reading German (and French) literature and shared some websites with each other that have been helpful as resources and references.  Now, please let me make this caveat: I do not advocate using online computer translators to replace learning German for your thesis work; [...]

Common Latin Words and Abbreviations

Inevitably we stumble upon Latin words and abbreviations in writings (especially of an older generation).  Often I simply ignore them, but they are becoming more important when I really need to understand what the author is communicating in a footnote.  So, I have compiled a list of Latinisms that you may find in monographs and [...]

Shipping your personal books to England

I have had a few chats now with folks here as to whether it is wise to send your own books to England for use during your doctoral studies.  I offer my own thoughts here.
When I was still at Gordon-Conwell, I asked a Gordon College prof who studied at Aberdeen if  I should ship my [...]

What I Learned for Reading My First Paper at a Conference

This past weekend I read a paper at the OT in NT Seminar (conveniently) located in Durham.  As it was my first, I was very nervous, but the group is warm and encouraging and the criticisms were irenic and constructive.  That having been said, I can share some observations about what I saw regarding other [...]

Some advice for doctoral students from a wise scholar

During a dinner at the OT in NT seminar, I was able to pick the brain of Maurice Casey about his experience supervising students. He himself studied many years ago at Durham under C.K. Barrett and made a name for himself in Gospels studies (and he is now retired). I thought I might [...]

Annual Seminar on the Old in the New (a general summary and background)

These last three days I have attended the Seminar on the Use of the Old Testament in the New. This year, as in years past, it is a relatively small group of mostly expert scholars and a few students. I was blessed to have interacted with Lionel and Wendy Sproston North, Paul Ellingworth, [...]

Details, details…(my thoughts on citing works in footnotes)

Let me preface this post by saying that this is going be one of my more boring comments, so don’t read this late at night or else you may crush your keyboard with your face when you doze off.  Ok.
When writing footnotes in your doctoral thesis, it is helpful to have a consistent citation style.  [...]