Thread: Theological dissertation standards?

Originally posted by AlnEstn
Are there highly proficient software programs out there that could work with German and French?

Good question, Alan. I know a handful of doctoral students who have successfully used a program called Easy Translator. Version 4 is available now, and costs just $24.95 at www.nothingbutsoftware.com. The program translates the following languages into English: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Japanese.

One downside to a program like this is that it often doesn't recognize theological jargon. For German (arguably the most important modern language for students of theology), the theological German dictionary in Helmut W. Ziefle's Modern Theological German: A Reader and Dictionary (Baker , 1997) is a lifesaver. It contains over 20,000 words not found in standard German dictionaries. The book costs around $25.

So, for about $50, a person can get the gist of just about any theological German work.

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Ed,
Thanks for the help on the software and dictionary. This site is great for stuff like this, unlike a certain other distance ed. site that has been filled with junk of late.

online-college.info = NUTS (Not Unlike a Terrorist State). :D

Originally posted by AlnEstn
...and learningAramaic, Ugaritic and Akkadian...

You will love Ugaritic. You will be surprised how the Ugaritic cognates make the Old Testament come alive.

Thanks, Ed, for adding convincingly to the list. I am pleased to see that there are practical options for interacting with works in the modern research languages without having to develop genuine fluency.

Well, it seems that participants here have agreed on some standards for theological dissertations, which I think most credible schools would adhere to, whether liberal or conservative. This is all to the good, but I am a little disappointed that nobody chose to defend a different set of standards.

Earlier this year, the majority of posters roundly trashed a theological dissertation from an unaccredited school in California. Last year, a moderate majority of posters vigorously defended the quality of a theological dissertation from an established non-US school. But both dissertations clearly did not meet the standards listed above. So were generally accepted standards applied selectively, or are the standards listed here in this thread off base?

Dave

My experience with graduate language requirements, and I am talking here about two B/M RA institutions at the MA and Ph.D. levels, is that the requirements are on paper formidable, but in practice almost absurdly easy to meet--I met Italian by taking an upper division Dante course which was taught in English; I wrote a paper in English and translated a few passages, based on a dual language edition of Inferno and high school Latin. I met Old English by taking two courses. I met an MA requirement by taking one semester of Latin and translating a passage that was identified before the test. (University of California ; California State University). Like so much in grad school, a lot of sound but little fury.


Craig

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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Craig Hargis
[B]My experience with graduate language requirements, and I am talking here about two B/M RA institutions at the MA and Ph.D. levels, is that the requirements are on paper formidable, but in practice almost absurdly easy to meet--I met Italian by taking an upper division Dante course which was taught in English; I wrote a paper in English and translated a few passages, based on a dual language edition of Inferno and high school Latin. I met Old English by taking two courses. I met an MA requirement by taking one semester of Latin and translating a passage that was identified before the test. (University of California ; California State University). Like so much in grad school, a lot of sound but little fury.


===

My experience was more stringent than that in seminary where three years of Greek and two of Hebrew were required for the MDiv and more Greek was done in the ThM. My first class at Western in 1990 was exegesis of either Romans or Galatians--both were at one time done (along with the Pastorals and Ephesians). This included reading aloud the Greek text for the prof and responding to his questions , in class and exegetical assignments as lexical or textual or syntactical or grammatical were given to complete outside of class on the Greek text.

I wish I could say this was "absurdly easy" for me at Western, but as I had had no Greek since 1966, it was not. Nor am I having a particularly easy time at this very moment trying to decide for the purpose of my thesis , for myself , [ experts disagree you know, eg. Wright v Wallace] , whether the articular infinitive in Phil 2:6 is causal or concessive and researching for myself occasions where such occurs in the Greek in the NT, as well as observing cues in the context, so that my position will be firmly anchored in the grammaticisms of the original language which I myself have researched and not in the opinion of someone else.

It is, after all, MY thesis.

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Nor am I having a particularly easy time at this very moment trying to decide for the purpose of my thesis , for myself , [ experts disagree you know, eg. Wright v Wallace] , whether the articular infinitive in Phil 2:6 is causal or concessive ...........and researching for myself.............
....It is, after all, MY thesis. [/B][/QUOTE]


===


Um, of course, if any here in this noble discussion on how theo doc research should be done wishes to offer a suggestion on whether the articular infinitive in Phil 2:6 is causal or concessive, and why, I certainly will listen:D

Bill,

You can always run it past the collection of experts and enthusiasts at the "B-Greek list". They are a valuable resource, although I must struggle to keep up with some of their higher-end discussion.

Dave

www.ibiblio.org/bgreek

Bill,

I have a 14-page reprint of an article that appeared in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly. The article is entitled The Aramaic Background of Phillippians 2:6-11. The article was written by Father Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. Father Fitzmyer is a foremost Biblical scholar. He uses most of the Greek words you have mentioned on here and he gives their definitions and explanations. If you would like to borrow this, if it will assist you in your research, I would be happy to send it to you. I tried to PM you but your box is full.

Originally posted by Jimmy Clifton
Bill,

I have a 14-page reprint of an article that appeared in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly. The article is entitled The Aramaic Background of Phillippians 2:6-11. The article was written by Father Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. Father Fitzmyer is a foremost Biblical scholar. He uses most of the Greek words you have mentioned on here and he gives their definitions and explanations. If you would like to borrow this, if it will assist you in your research, I would be happy to send it to you. I tried to PM you but your box is full.

===

My box may say it's full, but I emptied it recently. Don't understand.

So, Jimmy, what does the good father say about my problem as to whether that articular infinitive is casual or concessive and why does he say that?

Originally posted by DG1
Bill,

You can always run it past the collection of experts and enthusiasts at the "B-Greek list". They are a valuable resource, although I must struggle to keep up with some of their higher-end discussion.

Dave

www.ibiblio.org/bgreek

===

Thanks, might do that. Just picked up Martin's Carmen Christi, over 300 pages on Phil 2:5-11 ,maybe that will wipe away some cobwebs. I have lots of stuff on the issue, unfortunately they all disagree with each other.

Originally posted by DG1
Bill,

You can always run it past the collection of experts and enthusiasts at the "B-Greek list". They are a valuable resource, although I must struggle to keep up with some of their higher-end discussion.

Dave

www.ibiblio.org/bgreek

===

I submitted my question, but it bounced back. I think one has to be a member to ask, and I've got too much now going on without participating elsewhere. It does look at like a good place to discuss things.

But I've interacted for about three weeks now with the Greek text and secondary sources on the question of whether or not the articular infinitive by the particle , being now thought by me to be causal, refers back to the phrase "existing in God's form" and so attributes to the Son both the morphe and the isos of God. I think it does, and so I now begin a 8 to 12 page attempted refutation of Wallace, Martin, and Burk on this one verse to further debunk ontological relational subordination within the Godhead.

So, thanks Dave and Jimmy.

Originally posted by AlnEstn
...I am a lot more interested in...learning Aramaic...

Alan, you can go here for some excellent study materials. You can also find some good materials here and here especially the Classical Aramaic book and the tapes.
This site may be of some interest to you. These are some of the materials I used during my 16 years of studying the Aramaic language. Most of my materials were Lamsa's writings and books, however. Many of these are no longer available. I also studied for a short time at a Syrian Orthodox Church outside of Detroit where I obtained a number of books on Syriac (called by some Christian Aramaic). I used to own the complete Aramaic Interlinear New Testament, Concordance, etc., but sold them last year to someone wanting to learn the language. I hope these links help.