A week in the life of a first-year PhD New Testament Student

The following is an attempt to represent what a week as a first-year PhD New Testament student looks like, though I have yet to have a normal week.

First, some orienting remarks. The PhD in the United Kingdom (UK) is a bit different than how it is done in the United States. Most notably, there is no coursework. That's right, I don't go to class! The PhD in the UK is primarily about research; it is about articulating and defending my original contribution to New Testament scholarship in no more than 80,000 words. So, from day one I have spent the majority of my week in one way or another working on, what they call here, my 'project', which is to say the writing of my thesis. 'Sounds easy', I naively once thought. ''What will I do with all my extra time'? More on that in a moment...

The primary task of a first-year student is to figure out what he or she is to be researching! No one chooses your thesis topic for you. No one really tells you, "Do this' or 'Do that'. You must figure out what your original contribution will be to the field. Your supervisor is there to guide you, to tell you whether your idea is ridiculous, to steer you away from dead-ends, and to answer any questions you may have, but generally they will not hold your hand. I have two supervisors. My long-term supervisor is Bruce Longenecker. He is on sabbatical, so my temporary supervisor is Richard Bauckham. Prof Bauckham is regarded by most in his field as one of the top New Testament scholars in the world. You can imagine how I felt when I found out he would be my supervisor for a semester (fear and elation).


Most of us arrive here with some ideas of what we are going to do; but since we are not experts in the field our hunches sometimes are wrong-headed. So, the first few months are spent reading as widely as possible in our niche to see if someone has already said what we thought was our unique contribution. The fear of every first year student is that today in our readings we are going to come across that article or book that says exactly everything we were wanting to say. It has happened to me twice already.

So, as we read, and read, and read, we formulate and reformulate our research questions and our preliminary hypotheses. We go through waves of encouragement and self-doubt, utter despair, and flashes of brilliance--sometimes within a span of an hour!

So, if I don't go to class, what do I actually do all day? In order to explain a 'week in the life', I have tried to break up what I do each week into categories, though it never quite works out so nice and tidy:

1. 1 Peter exegesis. I usually start my morning in the text. I want my research to flow from my reading of 1 Peter. I work through 1 Peter in the Greek, trying to follow the argument, doing word studies, diagramming sentences, asking lots of questions, trying to chase those questions down, and then writing up what I am discovering.

2. 1 Peter secondary literature. Since my field is 1 Peter it is expected that I am thoroughly familiar with all that has been written on 1 Peter. John Elliott, the godfather of 1 Peter Studies , has published a 150-page bibliography on all extant 1 Peter literature. That gives you some idea of the scope of reading I have and why the PhD takes at least three years! I have made it through the major commentaries and some important books on some particulars of 1 Peter, but I have a long way to go.

3. Secondary literature on imperial ideology. My research seeks to show how Greco-Roman backgrounds can shed light on the message of 1 Peter. Specifically, I seek to show how understanding Roman imperial ideology in Asia Minor (the letter is written to residents of Asia Minor) can bring coherence to the letter. This means that part of my research crosses over into another discipline of study--the discipline of Roman Studies. Under that umbrella I am engaged in Roman Imperial Studies. This means that I have to learn the 'ins and outs' of a discipline outside my field of training. So, I spend at least three hours a day reading books on imperial ideology or the imperial cult in Asia Minor. There is a huge learning curve, not least because many of the sources are in Latin and German, which brings me to my next task...languages!

4. Research languages. Some of the best research in the area of imperial ideology has been done in German, Italian, and French. As well, many of the original documents I need to read in order to understand imperial ideology are written in Latin. So, a portion of each day is spent learning German, Latin or French. Italian is close enough to Spanish that I can fake it!

5. Inscriptions and coins. Much of my argument will come from evidence derived from inscriptions and coins.This means much of my time each week is spent studying monuments, statues and symbols and words on coins--all in an effort to understand the social/political/theological world of 1 Peter. The majority of these artifacts are written in Greek.


6. Seminars. While there is no classwork, each PhD student is required to take at least one 'seminar'. Seminars meet once a week. They are run by designated professors and usually correspond to the professor's area of expertise. They provide opportunities to explore issues in the given field and are often places were invited guests (visiting scholars) share their most recent research. I am involved in two seminars--one that deals with the interface between theology and hermeneutics, the other which analyzes the various methodologies involved in New Testament Studies. Both seminars require considerable reading in advance and add to my weekly reading burden.

7. Writing. The biggest challenge in PhD studies, for me anyway, is thre-fold: understanding what I read, then remembering what I read, and finally incorporating what I have read into a coherent, argument. I try to write something everyday. After I read a chapter or an article, I write a summary of the argument and some reflections. On average thus far it takes me one day to write one paragraph. They tell me this is normal right now and that soon it will go much faster! I hope so, cause at this pace I will finish my thesis about the same time my kids graduate from college! It has never been my dream to graduate with my kids.

In a nutshell, eight hours of my day consist in reading intensely, writing, and learning new languages. Fun, but tiring by Friday. In the end, the UK system allows a student to customize his or her studies in keeping with the individuals' reseach questions and pursuits. This is one of the primary advantages to the UK way of doing the PhD.

Finally, I turn in my first significant piece of writing in early April. This work will be evaluated and will determine whether they let me continue on as a PhD student. At that time I will summarize what my research is all about, what I am arguing, etc.

(Photos: the photos serve as samplings of some of the books I am currently reading in the categories listed above.)