The (dreaded) dissertation topic – 2 of 3 – “Asking the right question…”

Introduction

In this post I want to help you conceptualize a few things regarding your dissertation topic before you launch into reading tons of books in search of a good thesis.

This is the second post of a quick series I am doing on the dissertation topic.  You can check out the first post entitled “The (dreaded) dissertation topic – 1 of 3 – ‘A flexible evolution in thinking.”

The question is king

When contemplating a dissertation topic, your first task is to re-conceptualize your thinking about it!  (I know this sounds very Yoda-like, but stick with me on this…)

To put it another way, a dissertation topic is nothing more than a question you are posing to the available data (In a Biblical Studies program, data is defined more typically as the biblical text, but it can be any number of sources whether archeological or literary ranging from the period of the Ancient Near East to the early Church fathers).

Your doctoral dissertation is the systematic answer, coherently written and tightly argued, to a high level inquiry that you are making of these resources.

This is why my topic heading is, “The question is king.” Without asking a good question, without narrowing down your research question to something manageable, answerable and defensible, your writing of your dissertation will be a long haul indeed (it won’t be pleasant, may cause you unnecessary delays, and could result in you not reaching your PhD goals.)

I didn’t learn this in seminary

This concept of having a research question that guides the investigation was something that was completely foreign to me as I began my PhD program.

During my MDIV or even during my ThM, I really didn’t have enough exposure to academic writing to be aware of this.  And most of the assignments I completed, exegesis papers, topical research papers, etc. did not require me to think in this way.  I wasn’t required to produce an original contribution and the approach to those assignments was more a summarizing of various resources than it was tackling an academic inquiry.

While I’m on the topic of my own academic preparation, I will have to say that if you are attending a conservative seminary prior to a PhD program you really must expose yourself to the wider academic community.  Most of the literature today, whether in books, articles and studies as well as the research that is being conducted in Biblical Studies comes from the non-conservative sector of the academic community.

In a PhD program, you must deal with all of it if it impacts your topic. If a German critic thinks that Luke created all of the speeches in Acts from his own imagination (i.e. Dibelius), you can’t simply sidestep that argument if your thesis covers the speeches in Acts in some way.  (By the way, no discussion on the Book of Acts is complete without tackling Dibelius.  He pretty much re-set the agenda for studies in Acts since the 1950s.)

Again, if you are thinking about going into a PhD program, you must read wider and have more meaningful engagement with biblical critics who do not see the world (or the Bible) the way that you do.  In my case, I was able to take classes at Harvard Divinity School and Andover Theological Seminary where I interacted with students from many different backgrounds and spiritual histories very different from my own.  It wasn’t comfortable at times, but it made for good PhD preparation.

The research question

All right then, let’s take a look at some simple research questions in order to re-conceptualize this whole notion of a dissertation topic.

1. How does the Christology of 1 Peter relate to the issues of suffering and persecution seen within that letter?
2. Do the Miletus Speech (Acts 20:17-38) and 1 Peter 5:1-9 have a common literary tradition?
3. What is Luke’s view of leadership within the context of the Last Supper Discourse (Luke 22:15-30)?
4. How does the rhetorical strategy of the Philippians letter contribute to the theme of consolation?

Here are a few things to notice about each question.

1) Embedded within each question is the contour of the dissertation itself.

The way you frame your question will determine the background that must be covered, and in a sense, give you a guidepost for the larger chunks of your study.

For example, in the case of 1 Peter and Christology (1 above) you would have to cover suffering in 1 Peter, the Christology of 1 Peter and the relationship of Christology to suffering in 1 Peter. Throw in the introductory chapter which contains a literature review (a history of research on 1 Peter and suffering) and a summary chapter and you are up to five chapters.

In the case of the Miletus Speech (2 above), you would have an exegesis chapter on each text, a chapter demonstrating the literary parallels within both texts and a chapter tracing the literary tradition of both texts to a common source.  Again, literature review and summary chapters would take you to six chapters total.

In the case of Luke and leadership (3 above), you would be required to do some socio-historical research into Greco-Roman leadership models.  The chapter outline would be 1) Intro and literature review 2) Luke 22 exegesis 3) Greco-Roman leadership 4) Comparison of Luke 22 leadership style to Greco-Roman leadership style 5) Luke’s view of leadership in Luke-Acts 6) Summary and conclusions.

2) The question you ask determines the primary methodology you will use in completing your dissertation.

The issue of methodology was also one that I had very little grasp of when I began my research.  About six months in, one of my friends suggested I read a section of Biblical Interpretation: An Integrated Approach by Tate, which covered the various methodological approaches to studying the Bible.  It was as if a light bulb just went off in my head (I know, I know, I was incredibly naive as I jumped into my research, but I have nothing to hide now.  I just want to help.)

In order to choose a topic, you will inevitably be forced to pick a methodology or methodologies that you will apply to your data.  The methodology is the primary analytical approach you will take to study your topic.

The word “criticism” is often used in conjunction with different methodologies.  For example in the Biblical Studies world: form, source, tradition, canonical, narrative, socio-historical, rhetorical, post-modern, redaction and literary criticism are methodological tools to use in writing your dissertation.

Each one of these methodologies uses specific literary tools to look at your data and engages with (in some cases) very specific scholars who have had a big influence on that particular methodology.

Thus, in the research question above, dealing with the rhetorical strategy of Philippians, you would use rhetorical criticism as one of your methodologies. This would require you to become steeped in the use of Greco-Roman rhetorical strategies and be able to use those strategies as a lens by which you look at how Philippians uses rhetoric to communicate its message of consolation.

In the case of Luke and leadership, you would use socio-historical criticism as one of your methodologies, and your study would take you into archeology, inscriptions, and literature that describe various models of Greco-Roman leadership.  These you would use to compare to what Jesus says about leadership in Luke’s Last Supper discourse (Luke 22).

Finally, in the case of comparing the Miletus Speech and 1 Peter 5, you would use tradition criticism as one of your methodologies. This would allow you to trace the literary sources that lie behind both texts and to figure out if they share a common literary tradition.

Read with a questioning mentality

As you can see so far, a good research question is what drives your research.  Thus, from now on, as you read through scripture or secondary literature (articles, books) ask yourself if there is a question embedded in the information you are reading.  Does something not make sense? Is there an interesting twist you never saw? What question is an author raising and answering? Is the question he / she is asking framed properly or even valid?

Just the other day I was reading the story of Samuel’s birth in 1 Samuel. As it is related, Hannah suffered greatly through childlessness, but one day, the LORD “remembered” Hannah and caused her to conceive.

That word “remembered” struck me strangely.  Is that a Hebrew idiom? Why use a cognitive term there? Where else is this term used?  How is it used? In a very short order I had the potential for a research question and a potential dissertation topic which would immerse me in the world of Hebrew idioms, 1 an 2 Samuel (and essentially Joshua – Nehemiah, the so-called Deuteronomic History), a philological study of the term “remember” and its cognates, and so on…

Summary

In this re-conceptualizing of what a dissertation topic means, I hope you have been able to see that the research question is the primary goal of choosing a good topic.  By viewing your dissertation topic as a question, you can begin to think of various inquiries that you think you might want to pursue.

What are you curious about, what questions might you want to ask of the scriptures or of other literature of the biblical period?  The question is king and your job is to choose the one that will be the most interesting to you and that will lead to a fruitful investigation.

Happy researching!