{"id":1634,"date":"2011-09-17T01:03:58","date_gmt":"2011-09-17T05:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=1634"},"modified":"2015-03-13T23:12:46","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T03:12:46","slug":"more-hurtado-on-the-sad-state-of-nt-phd-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/09\/17\/more-hurtado-on-the-sad-state-of-nt-phd-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"More Hurtado on the Sad State of NT PHD Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Tools of the Trade . . . Encore<\/a><\/h2>\n
larryhurtado<\/a><\/strong> | September 5, 2011 at 9:33 am | Categories: Uncategorized<\/a> | URL: http:\/\/wp.me\/pYZXr-bt<\/a><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Well, my posting yesterday on \u201cTools of the Trade\u201d has already generated a number of comments, several of which raise some reasonable questions.\u00a0 So, instead of replying to them individually, I\u2019ll try to do so in this further posting.\u00a0 I\u2019ll\u00a0attempt to be succinct, but this will be longer-than-most-of-mine posting.<\/p>\n

First, some comments have to do with the languages.\u00a0 In view of all sorts of computized packages today, why<\/em> should we require NT scholars to have a good ability in Koine Greek and Hebrew?\u00a0 And, in view of the dominance of English, why<\/em> should NT scholars be expected to be able to read German and French?\u00a0 And, in view of the commendable growth of biblical scholarship in various parts of the world (e.g., Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America), why<\/em> this emphasis on these<\/em> European languages?<\/p>\n

The first thing to say is that I regard the PhD primarily as preparation for a life of scholarship.\u00a0 There are some who commence PhD study after retirment, or purely as a (rather demanding) personal interest.\u00a0 But most aspire to becoming after PhD able to play some role in the field, teaching and assessing students, engaging the work of other scholars, and (hopefully) contributing to the field as well.\u00a0 That is (to reflect a view that is typical among scholars), the PhD should prepare you for a subsequent role as a scholar in the field.\u00a0 In that sense, you don\u2019t simply write a one-off piece to get the degree, but you equip yourself with various \u201ctools of the trade\u201d to be a scholar in the field.\u00a0 There is a discipline<\/em> called NT studies, and an academic\u00a0\u201cdiscipline\u201d typically involves core abilities and practices, and a commitment to developing these among those who wish to contribute to that discipline.<\/p>\n

Among the tools of this particular trade, languages are central.\u00a0 We\u2019re dealing with texts, all kinds of texts, and in certain ancient languages.\u00a0 Every lexicon, every commentary, every computer package, reflects judgments about words, syntax, etc.\u00a0 And the scholar in the field should be able to assess such judgments, on his\/her own, not simply appropriate the judgments of others.\u00a0 Sure, a computer package can quickly tell you how many times this or that lexeme appears, and it can produce a list of occurrences.\u00a0 But the computer-package can\u2019t tell you how to assess some other scholar\u2019s claim about the sense of a given sentence of Greek or Hebrew or Latin or Aramaic.\u00a0 If you want to express a view and you want it taken seriously by other scholars, then you must be able to handle the texts yourself.\u00a0 And in the field, the \u201ctext\u201d is that written in the ancient language, not simply a translation.<\/p>\n

As to the European languages I mentioned, there are several things to say.\u00a0 First, I\u2019m talking about a PhD from a UK university, not one in Bangalore, or Beijing or Kuala Lampur or\u00a0 . . . you get it.\u00a0 No implication intended as to relative quality.\u00a0\u00a0All I mean is that\u00a0if you want a European doctorate then don\u2019t get surprised at European languages being central.\u00a0 But secondly and much more to the point, these particular languages have been, and remain, considerably more important in the field, because far more important work is published in them across a far wider spectrum of matters.\u00a0 (By \u201cimportant\u201d, I mean intended to have impact and relevance for the field as a whole .)<\/p>\n

There\u00a0are some publications\u00a0in\u00a0other languages that are important for some topics (e.g.,\u00a0the Italian studies on\u00a0the Ascension of Isaiah) .\u00a0 Of course, it would\u00a0advantageous to read additional languages.\u00a0 (In my own PhD work, it proved very handy that I had Spanish, as two major articles in Spanish had been highly infulential but had not been subjected to adequate critical scrutiny.)<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mention German and French to exclude any other language, European or others.\u00a0 But, if we have to identify key languages in the discipline, as those in which the historic body of scholarship lies and in which still the great majority of contributing scholarship in NT studies is published, then it\u2019s English, German and French.\u00a0 So if we require PhD students to be able to engage the great majority of scholarly publications in the field, these are the languages that are essential to read.<\/p>\n

The scholar is expected to be able to engage the scholarly work of others, and this has meant (and should continue to mean) being able to read and review work in at least English, German and French.\u00a0 E.g., the international Society for New Testament Studies allows papers delivered in these three languages, and its journal publishes in these three.<\/p>\n

Being a scholar in NT means being able to engage, and draw upon valuable work done in the past, often decades ago or more.\u00a0\u00a0 And this makes German and French still more relevant.\u00a0English may be dominant in NT\u00a0now, but\u00a0it wasn\u2019t until perhaps the 1970s.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s one helluva lot of really important stuff that was published before then!\u00a0 And there continues to be crucial material published in German and French.<\/p>\n

Of course, we need to know what\u2019s happening now, and the recent and emergent developments in theory and approaches.\u00a0 (And, contrary to a rather ill-judged and\u00a0recklessly hostile\u00a0posting on another site, I am acquainted with such things as post-colonial theory, feminist theory, et alia.)\u00a0 But we don\u2019t advance by neglecting our past.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t progress to reject the core \u201ctools\u201d of the discipline in favor of adopting recent methodological proposals.\u00a0 We\u00a0should engage the latter out of a sound preparation in the former.<\/p>\n

For me, as for most I presume, learning languages is hard work, and retaining and improving use of them a continuing effort.\u00a0 But, especially in a UK PhD programme, where you\u2019re expected to commence the thesis research immediately and produce a finished thesis within a 36-month optimal period (48 months maximum), students should work up a reading ability in the relevant languages before<\/em> starting PhD work.\u00a0 That way, you don\u2019t take time from research to learn languages.<\/p>\n

There were also comments about why and how it is that PhD theses can be presented by students who appear not to be able really to read Koine Greek, and\/or can\u2019t engage scholarship beyond English.\u00a0 This has to do with university policies and practices, and I\u2019ll save my comments on these matters for another posting.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tools of the Trade . . . Encore larryhurtado | September 5, 2011 at 9:33 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http:\/\/wp.me\/pYZXr-bt Well, my posting yesterday on \u201cTools of the Trade\u201d has already generated a number of comments, several of which raise some reasonable questions.\u00a0 So, instead of replying to them individually, I\u2019ll try to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMore Hurtado on the Sad State of NT PHD Studies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tools of the Trade . . . 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