I'm goin' to UCLA!
I am pleased to report that I have been offered admission into the Ph.D. program in UCLA’s Department of History, to work under Scott Bartchy, and I have accepted the offer! The specialty is technically called “History of Religions,” but I will mostly be concentrating on Christian origins (especially the New Testament, but also beyond). I understand there was only one spot and I am tremendously honored to have been chosen.
Why UCLA? Several reasons, let’s go for bullet points (in no particular order):
- I am excited to work with Scott Bartchy, who is a member of the Context Group and has significant experience in social concerns (e.g., slavery, gender roles, community formation) with the New Testament, using sociological and anthropological methods of historical research. I have become more and more drawn to social concerns in Christian origins and Bartchy will help me dive in with both feet. More on Bartchy below.
- I also have a burgeoning interest in apocalypticism and Christian origins (as if anyone could define apocalypticism). I am especially interested in comparing and contrasting Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature. A fairly recent addition to UCLA’s Departments of History and NELC, Ra’anan Boustan, has worked in Jewish apocalyptic issues and in Jewish-Christian relations, which is a great resource for my interests.
- I have the freedom to piece together my own program, taking a combination of graduate seminars, directed readings, and even upper division undergrad courses not only in the History Department, but also in world-class departments like NELC and Classics.
- Even though, I’m interested primarily in the New Testament and Christian origins, I can’t shake my interest in the history of Israel, subsequently of Judaism, and their literature. NELC faculty members such as Bill Schniedewind, especially with his interest in sociolinguistics of Hebrew and the social/cultural history of ancient Palestine, will provide deep wells of knowledge for my research.
- In this program, I will get a well-rounded education, with some training in the history of western civilization generally and world religions.
- The opportunity to do adjunct teaching in New Testament studies during my dissertation at several excellent Christian schools in the area. I think this will help prepare me by exposing me to various types of settings engaging students in biblical studies.
- UCLA’s Department of History, according to US News and World Report, is one of the top ten history programs in the country. We all know that such rankings are tenuous, but it’s still nice. Check out the response to the rankings several years back by the American Historical Association.
- I’ve met some of the graduate students who are studying in the history department and become friends with one of Bartchy’s grad students, Kevin Scull. They are happy and seem like tons of fun. That makes a world of difference!
- Also, it doesn’t hurt that Fuller has plans to finish construction of their new snazzy library, which will apparently be the largest theological library on the Pacific Rim, in early 2009. I will certainly be frequenting Fuller’s campus while I’m in the program at UCLA.
Some more on Bartchy: He’s down to earth and has a balanced perspective. He’s a jazz pianist and marathon runner. Professor Bartchy is pretty progressive (see a couple articles on his earth-friendly home; and an online interview on his views of Christianity). He cares about his students, even the undergrads! (At a big research university like UCLA, that’s saying a lot.) Bartchy is involved in campus life, participating in panel discussions on religion. He founded and directs the Center for the Study of Religion at UCLA, which brings together disciplines that work on religion from various angles and which also offers an undergraduate major in religion. As I understand it, UCLA has been slow to consider religion as a valid field at a state sponsored university (with perhaps understandable skepticism), but Bartchy has been leading the way to establish the study of religion on campus. His dream would be the creation of a department of religious studies, where “we would have a budget, and we could call in scholars and very distinguished people who might not fit into the agenda of any particular department” except for a religion department. Bartchy is sensitive to various religious experiences in his teaching. In fact, he offers a helpful metaphor for dealing with difficult research issues: the moving around and adjustment of ideological buckets (maybe I’ll say more about that some other time). All of this to say that Scott Bartchy not only offers academic expertise that is quite relevant to my research interests, but he also models a kind of actively involved educator and mentor to students that I would like to become.
In one sense, my decision to study the New Testament within a history department is a statement about my modern sensibilities. While many are declaring the death of the historical method of interpreting the Bible, here I am signing up for historical scholarship on the Bible and the foundational period of Christianity and Judaism. I believe that postmodern-ish methods of interpreting the Bible from various minority perspectives and social locations are enormously helpful in both keeping the practice of the historical-critical method in check, while also offering unique points of view on how to apply our historical findings to the contemporary global situation. But, for myself, I would like to be firmly planted in the historical foundation of research before jumping too deeply into postmodern or postcritical approaches. What better way to do that than study the Bible and its historical context at one of the best history departments in the country?
Who doesn't want to be a "rich professor"?
One of the purposes of this blog is to reflect on the journey towards academia. I have been caught up in applying to my next step in that process, namely, doctoral programs. I am, of course, a bundle of nerves, excitement and bewilderment when I think about the fact that I will be somewhere else this fall. I probably won’t be relieved of that odd feeling until somewhere in the middle of the program, I say to myself, “Wait a minute. I’m here.” At that moment, the moment when I realize I really have become a doctoral student at Such and Such University, I imagine the next anxious moment in the academic journey will feel all the more tangible. That next step is, of course, getting a job.
There have been some interesting thoughts on academic jobs floating around. Just this past weekend, you may have heard the debates in New Hampshire. In the debate with the Democratic candidates, ABC’s Charlie Gibson made a false assumption about faculty salaries at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire (the host of the debate). Here’s the bit from the transcript:
GIBSON: If you take a family of two professors, here at Saint Anselm, they’re going to be in the $200,000 category that you’re talking about lifting the taxes on.
(LAUGHTER)
GIBSON: And…
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: That may be NYU, Charlie. I don’t think it’s St. Anselm.
The people at the event thought it was a humorous suggestion. After I came to the realization that my vocation was to be a professor, I talked to one of my professors from my undergraduate days about what salaries are like for new PhDs. He told me, “We’re not in it for the money!” Professors get way underpaid when one considers the amount of training that goes into it. In the article, “ABC Thinks You’re Rich; ‘U.S. News’ Says Your Job Is Cushy,” Inside Higher Ed had an interesting reflection on Gibson’s faux pas (he says a minute later, “Well, I shouldn’t have done that, apparently”) and one other bit from popular media. Here’s one correction from the article:
[Sherman] Dorn checked the annual data compiled by the American Association of University Professors and found that the average salary for a full professor at Saint Anselm is just over $77,000 while the average for assistant professors is under $50,000. Dorn said in an e-mail that the question showed “astounding ignorance” of faculty salaries. . . . He noted that the average salary for full-time professors nationally is about $73,000 in the AAUP survey, and that only about half of all professors nationwide have full-time faculty jobs.
This is all in line with what I’ve come to expect from speculative comments made by professors at both my undergrad and at Fuller. If a new PhD is lucky enough to land an Assistant Professorship, depending on the institution, they should probably expect somewhere in the 40 thousands. An adjunct instructor? Forget about it. That’s a whole other ball of wax.
The article also brought up a U.S. News and World Report feature which names the “31 best careers” for 2008. Along with investment banker and hairstylist/cosmetologists, also on the list were professor, higher education administrator, librarian, editor, and clergy. I think it’s worth taking a look at part of the brief report on professors:
If you can land a tenure-track position at a four-year institution, you’ll enjoy many advantages. You’ll get the pleasure of teaching—but only six to 15 hours a week, so you’re unlikely to burn out. Outside of class, you’re required to meet with students, but that too is just a few hours a week. Most of the time, you’ll do research or write on a scholarly topic that interests you. And in some specialties, you can pick up extra money by consulting. You also get to work in a delightful work environment: a college campus. Plus, after seven years, you get tenure—lifetime job security.
The downside? It’s tough to land a tenure-track job. It helps if you were a star in your Ph.D. program—and it helps more if that was at a prestigious university. It helps even more if you’re a woman or minority with the potential to bring in grant money. Obtaining a Ph.D. typically takes five to eight years once you’ve got a bachelor’s degree.
Also, the national average salary that they quote from PayScale.com is $85,300 (contrasted with the $73,000 in the AAUP survey). Interesting how they make it sound like after a blissful and relaxing seven years of wondrous life at your collegiate home . . . poof! You’ve got tenure. As if there is no question about it. Not to mention that not all institutions give you tenure for life, but some do a once every five year review or the like (I believe my alma mater does the latter). As the Inside Higher Ed article notes, the description omits the need to do class preparation and grading. They also point to a critique of the U.S. News feature by Karl Steel, an assistant professor of English at Brooklyn College, at his blog.
Another article of interest was published recently in Chronicle Careers by Claire Miller, which is the pseudonym of a Ph.D. candidate in religious studies. She reflects on the frustrating process of finding just the right “fit” in job descriptions that seem to be so strangely pieced together by vastly different specialties. Here’s her humorous fictional job description to demonstrate what she’s been seeing:
Nameless University invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track position in church history and applied ethics. Ability to teach ancient Greek and pastoral counseling desired. The successful candidate will also have competence in visual arts and international relations. Candidates with experience in administration and campus ministry are encouraged to apply.
After discussing with her graduate advisor, she reasons, “I’ve decided that if I can do less than half of a job description, I should let it pass. But if I can do more than half, it’s fair game.”
It all seems kind of crazy, how different this profession is from any other. If you include my undergraduate work, I am already in the seventh year of training in my field, biblical studies, and I’m going to near double that with my doctoral work. Then, after my twelve to thirteen years of training in biblical studies, I’m going to try to find a job that more than halfway matches my skill set. At that point, I hope to get paid at least as much as I could have made in my first year out of undergraduate studies if I had majored in, say, computer science or engineering.
Like my undergraduate professor told me, we’re not in this for the money. That’s right, I’m in it for the fame. Okay, maybe not that either. No, I’m on this strange journey because I want to engage difficult scholarly questions about the New Testament and early Christianity, while I also serve as an educator and mentor to students who wrestle with the same questions on the lay level. I’m on this road because I feel this is how I can make the biggest difference in the world.
So, I guess you could say that this post is me wrestling with the messy practicalities of future academic life, while also not losing my idealistic vision for why I’m motivated to enter the field in the first place.
Member of The Daily Scribe!
This news is a little late in coming, but a couple weeks ago I was welcomed into the family of The Daily Scribe, which has the description: “A growing compendium of exceptional Christian expression.” One of the things that the Scribe is looking for is open-mindedness and dialogue. I am honored and happy to be included in such a community as it is inventing itself. Here’s a little bit more from the “About” page:
Only the highest quality Christian writing and expression is aggregated on the pages of The Daily Scribe. All of the writers featured are dedicated professionals in their respective fields and faiths. Theirs is a passion which is obvious, mature and tuned – well tuned. Each aggregated member represents quality and honesty. Each of these individuals bring much of value to the craft.
For me, my membership in The Daily Scribe complements my understanding of my commitment to biblioblogging. I am deeply interested in intellectually engaging issues of scholarship in biblical studies and early Christianity, and I view that as the “biblioblogging” side to my blog. I also want to communicate these issues in a way that is accessible to those outside of scholarship who are still interested in the issues, and I guess I think of my newly formed commitment to The Daily Scribe as one representation of that passion to communicate to a wider audience. This melding of intellectual engagement with an attempt to communicate complicated issues of scholarship to a wider audience, by the way, is how I view my journey as a scholar and future educator. Engage in scholarship. Communicate and dialogue with students and other interested folks.
Since joining TDS, I have discovered a number of well-written and very interesting blogs on matters of faith. I highly recommend checking it out!
Monumental moments: some reflections
Since we moved to Pasadena, my wife and I have been living with an elderly couple (they just turned 96 and 99 recently) in an apartment within their home. The health of the 99-year-old wife has been on the decline for some time, especially in the last week or so. Just yesterday, she passed away. If you count the year that they dated before getting married, they’d been together for 70 years. 70 years!
This week I’ve been poring over websites about doctoral admission procedures and communicating with the people who are writing me letters of recommendation. Each program that I am applying to is wonderful and, I feel, is a good fit for my interests and personality. In order to apply to each school, particularly write the admissions essay, I have to really believe that I will be going there. Not just believe that I could get accepted, but I have to imagine myself setting foot on that campus as my home for the next five or six years. It’s quite an emotional roller coaster if you think about it. In a sense, I am psychologically packing up and moving to about eight different states in the country. This time next year, my wife and I will be in one of those eight states (assuming at least one school will have me).
Additionally, I am entrenched in the study of the Gospel of John. I am reading Meeks, Borgen, Brown, Lincoln, Beasley-Murray, Thompson, and of course many others. I am reading Philo and Josephus and 2 Baruch. I am thinking about “I am” and Logos and wisdom and manna. I was a little standoffish about the Gospel of John before, with my Anabaptist tendencies for the Matthew and Luke. But diving in like this, taking two courses from a world class Johannine scholar, has reoriented my thinking about the Gospel. I’m probably not going to write a dissertation on John or anything, but my mind has been expanded. I could probably even say that I’ve learned more this quarter than any other quarter of seminary.
I am going to SBL/AAR this weekend. Actually, since I am the new On-campus Student Representative for SBL at Fuller, I should probably be involved in something with the Student Advisory Group, but I haven’t heard anything yet. I am saddened that, just as I am getting started as a scholar, this will be the last meeting with both organizations together for awhile. I am a member of both SBL and AAR because I have interdisciplinary interests. But since, I guess I’d “land” more in the Bible area, I’m going to have to choose SBL for conferences. Sorry AAR. Why you gotta do this anyway? Also, at the meeting, I’m going to try to meet up with professors at the schools I’m applying to. I may be meeting people with whom I will have a very close relationship with for the next 5-6 years. Perhaps even for decades to come.
For next quarter, I’ve been green-lighted to take Don Hagner’s doctoral seminar on the History of New Testament Scholarship. Apparently, I’m the first masters-level student to take the course in 10 years or so. They don’t even have call letters for it in the system, so there are two or three departments at Fuller working to set up those call letters for next quarter. I am honored and astounded that so much effort is taking place so that little old me can take a seminar.
I am grading Hebrew exegesis and the academic fates of about thirty students rest in my hands. Okay, that’s overly dramatic, but it’s part of what I’m thinking about lately.
My Dad, my brother (not by blood–long story) and his Honduran wife are coming out to have Thanksgiving with my wife and me. They are driving from Austin to LA to get here. It will be the first time the five of us have been together, not including their schedule-hectic wedding in Honduras. It is going to be so wonderful I cannot even begin to express it.
We got a new cat about a month ago. Sometimes she stands up on her hind legs and it makes me happy.
After finals week, I’m going in for jury duty. Which will it be: prayer to not get chosen or dedicated attention to some specific case of civic justice?
Those are some thoughts on life right now.
Exploring Hebrew narrative for a friend
I have a friend who is currently a first year MDiv student at a school that many salivate over. He currently does not know which way his career will go: academic studies or ministry. Currently, he’s so loaded with the daily responsibilities of classwork that he hasn’t had much time to find a niche of research that he truly gets excited about. His mental skill for academia, however, is off the charts, in my opinion. So, I’m trying to think of ways he can explore his potential academic interests. Out of anything, he is most drawn to Hebrew narrative and is interested more in literary approaches than historical-critical work. I don’t think historical reconstruction does much for him, nor does abstract theological speculation.
Personally, I had a breakthrough when I discovered just what niche I am interested in exploring. First, I thought I would be interested in Jesus studies and the Gospels, but I am not as interested in recovering the “historical Jesus.” I then realized that I’m more interested in social issues in general (hence, for example, my work with Bread for the World this past Summer), so I started to think that way when researching. I found that the themes that I get most jazzed up about are how the early Christians apply their understanding/memory of Jesus to their social situation and, on the flip side, how their social situation affects their understanding/memory of Jesus. I also noticed that I simply got excited when I read apocalyptic literature. So, there it is: social issues in the New Testament and Christian origins, with a special interest in apocalyptic literature. But it took a long time to get there. Well, relatively “long” . . . I’m still in seminary, after all. But I was quite overwhelmed with the vast possibility for research areas up until I pinpointed this.
So, what are some ways that my friend can explore what might excite him most about Hebrew narrative? What are resources that he could turn to that would help him see if this really is his bag, baby? I’m no expert in Hebrew narrative, but here goes my brainstorming session:
- Explore some authors who might be down your alley. It seems to me that this is a key move that opens possible doors in multiple directions. He really liked Robert Alter’s The Art of Biblical Narrative and I think he appreciated the bit of Brueggemann that he read, too.
- Try this: Since he liked Alter’s book, search ATLA and look for reviews of the book. My search pulled up 28 reviews. See what other scholars said about it. This helps him not only to think critically about Alter’s book, but also think critically about where the reviewer is coming from. The reviewer may be someone whose works are worth checking out or maybe not. Or, as with Whybray’s significant review essay in JSOT (no 27, 1983), you may get some historical context and background for Alter as a scholar and this book placed within the larger framework of those scholars attempting literary criticism of the Bible. Actually, it turns out that Alter’s book is a great exercise for this because that particular issue of JSOT contains several reviews of the book along with a response from Alter himself.
- Read other books, or even articles, that might be of interest by these authors. What authors do they reference in the main text and footnotes most often? What topics come up often in these articles and books? That might provide an avenue for further research.
- Following the last point, what are the most important/interesting issues related to Hebrew narrative? What’s going on with the deuternomistic history and how does that color the narrative? What interpretative implications are there for the various dating schemes for the texts (pre/post-exilic)? How might the Dead Sea Scrolls relate to the literature? What do we do with New Testament usage of OT narrative? Try just reading entries about these things in dictionaries like Anchor Bible Dictionary or IVP’s dictionaries on the Pentateuch or Historical Books. Which ideas seem more attractive here?
- When you find names of people that you respect and find interesting, find out where they teach (even if they might be retired) and explore those programs. Alter teaches in the Jewish Studies department at UC-Berkeley. Who else teaches there (e.g., Daniel Boyarin) and does their research seem interesting? Their doctoral program functions jointly with the Graduate Theological Union (GTU). Does that program seem like a good way to go about studying? What are some other major programs in Hebrew Bible? Look at places like Johns Hopkins, UCLA, or U of Chicago. Do these programs seem like a good fit? Who teaches there? Does their work seem interesting? What about a smaller place like Brueggemann’s home at Columbia Theological Seminary? Turns out, Columbia doesn’t have a PhD program. Would you feel comfortable at another seminary environment (like Union-PSCE or Fuller)? In all of these programs: what would be your concentration, who might be your advisor, what kinds of courses would you take, etc.?
- Read blogs that intelligently wrestle with texts of the Hebrew Bible. This isn’t my area, but some good ones for that seem to be Ancient Hebrew Poetry, Awilum, Biblische Ausbildung, Blue Cord, Claude Mariottini, Higgaion, and Ketuvim. I know I’m missing people . . . sorry! Though, trying to read through a bunch of blogs can be overwhelming, especially since a heck of a lot of blogging by biblical studies blogs is not actually about biblical studies, let alone the biblical text itself. What might be even better would be to look at the monthly “carnivals” of biblical studies blogs that highlight some of the best blogging about biblical issues in various categories. Go down month by month and read the Hebrew Bible entries. I think this gives you an idea for the vast array of approaches and ideas out there, giving you a kind of dip into the waters of academia.
- Make sure to make appointments to chat with the OT faculty at your school and get their advice about how to think about these issues, how to get prepared, where to think of applying, what books to read, what languages are important to study, etc.
These are the kinds of things (though from a NT/Christian origins perspective) that I worked through to find my interests. But it is also a deep kind of soul searching, too. I don’t think people should hop into academia because it seems like an interesting career, but because you are driven by it: either to research, to teach, or both. For me, I just have this gut level passion for thinking about social implications of textual issues. I think that comes from its immense relevance to how the sacred texts are socially used and misused in society and culture today. I also have a passion for making the complicated stuff accessible to “average” people who have a hard time dealing with it. I guess it comes down to: with what issues do you want to spend your life wrestling?
Moving from Summer into the final year…
Well, I guess I’ve had my first summer vacation away from blogging. I took a break to go save the world as an intern with Bread for the World, as we all know how much of a global difference interns at nonprofits can make. My self-evaluation form for Fuller’s Field Education office questioned what I thought my biggest accomplishment was in this internship. I’d have to say the full-scale initiation of world peace, though my supervisor reminds me that there were a few others involved in that endeavor. I also baked some fine chocolate chip cookies that I shared with my officemates, which may be a close second to global shalom.
In all seriousness, it was a challenging internship and it forced me to gather and put to good use the theological and biblical resources I have developed in seminary and as an undergrad. I developed Bible studies related to issues of hunger and poverty. I will be giving a sermon at a church in the area about some of my reflections. I will be recording a few podcasts next month on the issues. Along the way, I was able to learn a great deal about policymaking and how politicking goes for these sorts of things, and how a nonprofit advocacy group responds to such challenges. I see this internship as the beginning of a deeper engagement with political advocacy, particularly with the mission of Bread for the World. I hope that even as I move towards an academic career in New Testament and early Christianity, I will always stay connected to present-day issues of justice. And someday, if I reach my dream of being an educator and mentor to undergraduate students, I hope to be able to connect them to the same kinds of opportunities for social engagement and evaluation. Even the Bible majors!
All of this said, I do actually miss my time in the classroom and I’m looking forward to getting back into gear this Fall. I will be a teaching assistant for Jim Butler, focusing mostly on grading Hebrew translations and word studies for an exegesis class on Jeremiah. As for my own education, I will be taking a couple classes with Marianne Meye Thompson and gleaning from her wisdom on John, with an exegesis course on the Gospel of John as well as a doctoral seminar on Johannine theology. It will be nice to balance out working on the more heavy theological concerns in Johannine literature with the Greek of John’s Gospel.
And to add to the drama (if you consider any of this to be drama), I will of course begin sending out those doctoral applications starting in November. The application due dates mostly span November to January. I will probably find out what schools have decided about me by late March-early April. I’m going to minimize the amount I publish of my thoughts on application strategy, at least while I’m going through the process, but I can tell you the basics. I will be going for schools that I consider top-class, including some institutions with great reputations but are less often considered by “New Testament” applicants (and some are not quite as competitive as others). I feel that all of these schools are a “good fit” for me (i.e., I’m not going for the brand name schools just for the heck of it). If I strike out with those, I will apply to a few Th.M. programs to prepare myself as a scholar one more year and then try another round of applications the next year.
Committee involvement for personal growth
Posted today on Inside Higher Ed, is an interesting article entitled “Don’t Be Afraid of Committees.” It is written by Adam Kotsko (see his blog here), a doctoral student in philosophy at Chicago Theological Seminary. He surmises that, far from a waste of time, serving on various committees can become an integral part of the educational formation of aspiring academics, helping them to learn the nuts and bolts of academia. Personally, I can’t imagine being involved on committees while in my M.Div. and trying to make the grades and doing other things that are of the utmost importance to doctoral applications (not to mention M.Div. extras like my part-time pastoral internship this past year and a full-time internship with the non-profit Bread for the World this Summer — which I’m very excited about, by the way). Perhaps it is naive, but I do imagine letting my guard down a little bit once I’m a doctoral student, leaving open more time for learning experiences on committees and whatnot. I would be interested to know if search committees appreciate seeing committee work on the CV when hiring new doctoral grads. Here are a couple clips from the article:
My service on Academic Council also made me eligible to serve on the search committee for an open faculty position in New Testament. That same year, I began a two-year term as the seminary’s student liaison to the American Academy of Religion, which required submitting various reports and — of course — serving on a committee at the national meeting, which that year largely served as an opportunity for us to ask a high-ranking administrator in the academy questions about the organization and its future.[ . . . ]
All of this was very valuable experience, and although it sounds like a lot of work, it really wasn’t. Much of the actual decision-making, for both the faculty and the board, took place in the closed executive sessions. Thus the responsibilities of students, and so also the expectations of outside preparation work, were limited: Our primary role was to allow student voices to be involved in the conversation. Even at the peak of my involvement, I was averaging under two hours a week, and most of the time it was considerably less. Since I was in my coursework stage, I was normally on campus anyway on the days when the committees met.
Tired Teacher vs. Aspiring Teacher
Here’s an interesting story of an associate professor of philosophy who got tired of his job and decided to take a two year leave of absence to join the Peace Corps, teaching English in China. I read these articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education written by people having trouble with their academic jobs and sometimes I have to take time to reflect on whether it is what I really want to do. I feel that this one doesn’t apply for me because, well, in the first place I would hate to teach philosophy too, especially at a school that doesn’t have a philosophy major. But he says:
Because, in truth, I have never been very comfortable with teaching. A natural introvert, I am much more at home in the library than in the lecture hall and find the classroom more exhausting than rewarding.
I do lean slightly towards the introvert side, but usually only with new people and then usually only in foreign environments. I do get energized when I speak in front of groups, large or small. Teaching college students is something that I anticipate with great excitement. I can’t wait to interact with and mentor college students when it comes to the difficult issues surrounding their relationship with the biblical text. In a post entitled “The Make-up of a College Prof,” Scot McKnight talks about what makes a good college professor, as opposed to a seminary professor:
I once said the difference between seminary teaching and college teaching was that in seminary we teach our subject but in college we teach students. I don’t think this says it all, and I do think it can mask a false dichotomy, but it was my experience. Sometimes I think it wouldn’t matter one bit what I was asked to teach at the college level, because I’d have to figure out where the students where and who they were and then just get into the mix with a subject and start moving onward.
I long to be on the other end of this educational journey and be able to be experience what McKnight describes here. I guess what I’m saying is that while I find this philosophy professor’s predicament interesting, I’m not sure I can imagine myself going through the same crisis 20 years down the road. I guess we shall see!
Blogging towards Academia
I would like to highly commend to you two recent blog postings by Mark Goodacre on the New Testament Gateway blog: Should Blogs Count for Tenure? and Blogging and Tenure 2. Dr. Goodacre, as usual, pushes academia forward in trying to think about the potential for new technologies, rather than getting hung up on the dangers. He suggests that a well-respected academic blog (and his own would certainly fit the bill!) should count as one of many “esteem indicators” in consideration of an academic who is up for tenure. I agree; I think we should recognize the dangers, try to avoid them as best we can, but ultimately utilize whatever may be helpful to the academic enterprise. This is the “glass is half full” view of academic blogging and new technologies in general.
One comment that he makes stands out for me, given my own personal educational situation:
But I know that I would always look favourably on someone who has an intelligent and energetic blog, whether as potential applicants to a graduate programme, or as job applicants, or as applicants for tenure. To me it is likely to suggest several things, a commitment to the dissemination of scholarship outside of the guild, a commitment to collaborative scholarship, and some degree of courage and public risk-taking. So I would be strongly inclined to treat blogging as a plus.
I have a particular interest in this comment (and the whole post, for that matter) after recently reading a 2005 article from the Chronicle for Higher Education, entitled “Bloggers Need Not Apply,” which has a very unfavorable attitude toward academic job applicants with blogs (even if those blogs aren’t mentioned in their documentation!). Consequently, I locked up my more personal blog so only registered friends could read it and I thought twice about some of my past postings on kata ta biblia.
Being a future applicant to doctoral programs in NT studies, I am a little confused as to what role my blog on NT interpretation will play. Dr. Goodacre has a positive view of “intelligent and energetic” blogs, but there are obviously a lot of academics who are not as positive on the potential of academic blogging. Then there is the question about whether a blog would be considered academic (let alone “intelligent and energetic”) enough in the eyes of various academic readers. With these great unknowns, therefore, does a doctoral applicant make mention of her or his blog on her or his application? I lean towards “no.”
I would love it if professors or admissions committees reviewing my application took a look at my blog and, thinking it simply wonderful, count it as one of many various “esteem indicators” for me as their perfect applicant (yes, this is a grand fantasy). On the other hand, I am dreadfully aware of my ignorance on a great many subjects. My educational pursuit is in many ways a fight against ignorance, my own and that of other individuals, groups, or society as a whole. But I would fear that in this online experimental exploration of ideas, I may accidentally reveal some dastardly wrong-headed and unforgivable ignorance on one of my postings. As a result, instead of being an “esteem indicator,” this experiment would constitute a “folly alert” for those reviewing my application.
What say ye? Do prospective students reveal their blogs to doctoral programs? Perhaps it depends on the program and its professors? Perhaps one could mention it at appropriate moments in conversation with the potential doctoral advisors (e. g., “That’s interesting because I was just blogging about this the other day…”). This question is particularly for Dr. Goodacre, as this started out as a (too long) comment in response to his post, but I’d like to read what others would say as well.
Alumni propaganda gets me excited!
So I was going to post each section of my paper on women in ministry as I wrote it, but that turned out to be a non-starter for a number of reasons. Instead, I’m going to adapt sections and perhaps expand upon them for the blog after finals week is over. I’ve still got some research exercises Marianne Meye Thompson’s NT Research Methods class to do for Friday. I’m writing right now to get my mind off work for a brief moment. I got a copy of my beloved quarterly Messiah College alumni magazine, The Bridge. I love my school’s alumni propaganda! Really. It totally puffs up Messiah, but it is so wonderful. It makes me want to go back there every time. I soak it up.
Anyway, in this issue there is a section on “Goals Set in Motion” about goals that Messiah professors had or have. I was very pleased to see my undergrad adviser, Mike Cosby, receive top billing in the article. He even got his photo on the cover of the magazine in a huge face closeup, with a slinky. Silly professors and their slinkies (is that the correct plural of slinky?). So here is his little snippet (I hope that he and The Bridge don’t mind me reproducing it here, it’s not too long):
An amazing reversal of plans
He began his career as a wildlife biology major, but soon a string of unexpected events led Michael R. Cosby into a different kind of wilderness experienceWhen I tell students that they never know what they might do with their undergraduate degrees, I speak from experience. I earned a degree in wildlife biology from the University of Montana and intended to work as a biologist on a wildlife refuge. I loved to roam the mountains of Montana, and I would have looked with disdain on a teaching career—which I would not have considered a “manly” occupation.
During my junior year of college, I began attending InterVarsity (IV) Christian Fellowship meetings—at first to check out the women. But soon I discovered that some of the students in the group had a consistency of life that attracted me. My own life lacked spiritual vitality and purpose. I joined a student-led, small group Bible study, where I learned to read biblical passages in their contexts—not just as proof texts to argue my own theological tradition. And the last week of spring semester, I had a dramatic encounter with God that changed my life. That summer I attended a Bible study leadership camp. During my senior year, I became a leader of the InterVarsity group, and the following summer I went to Guatemala to participate in IV’s Overseas Training Camp. While there, I was asked to come on staff with InterVarsity—an idea that I found humorous at the time.
Nevertheless, because of a knee injury and subsequent surgery, I could not work at my normal power-line construction job that summer, so I read and reflected a lot. I had one term left before I was to graduate, and by December I agreed to join the staff of InterVarsity. I never even applied for a job in wildlife management. For an outdoors kind of guy who laughed at the idea of a teaching career, to earn a Ph.D. in New Testament and teach Biblical studies at a Christian college really is an amazing reversal of plans
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Elsewhere . . .- Blog titles beginning with "A" to "Z" on your reader Mark Goodacre
- Of making many books there is no end Chris Brady
- Free Online: The Liddell-Scott Jones Lexicon S and C
- Does Higher Criticism Attempt to “Destroy the Bible”? II agathos
- Steven J. Friesen and the Identity of Satan’s Throne in Pergamum alan
- Does Higher Criticism Attempt to “Destroy the Bible”? agathos
- Bloomsbury buys Continuum Mark Goodacre
- Imperial America Peter J. Leithart
- C.F.D. Moule on the Birth of the New Testament d. miller
- Responding to Kostenberger (with comparisons to Marshall) Jeremiah
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