Introductions
Greetings friends. As you can see, my posts on my PhD sight have become fewer and fewer these past few months. I’ve been super busy with classes here at the Biblical Seminary of Colombia, building up my bible resources site and trying to develop an online class for Udemy.com.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I’m well into my third year of part-time writing for my dissertation in New Testament studies.
Methodology is key
Anyway, you may have heard me say in some of my other posts that very often the magic of a dissertation (at least in biblical studies) is in the methodology you choose to analyze a topic or a series of text. In other words, original ideas are not hard to come by as long as you are willing to write with lesser used methodologies.
In Biblical Studies anything that has a socio-historical or socio-rhetorical angle is usually uncharted territory. Ben Witherington has been writing various commentaries from a socio-rhetorical viewpoint and I would encourage you to take a look at his work to see the approach he takes.
In my study of 1 Peter I’ve had the privilege of studying John’ Elliott’s “A Home For The Homeless”. The subtitle gives us a clue into this methodology: A Sociological Exegesis of 1 Peter, Its Situation and Strategy.
This is a work that in some places utilizes modern social theories as a lens into the social and religious situation of 1 Peter’s audience. This would include the work of sociology to describe sect development and group cohesion and identity just to name a few.
All We Need Is An Example
I share this with you not because I want you to read the book, but rather, because sometimes all we need in generating an idea for a thesis is to see how someone else has tread the road already.
Elliott’s book and Witherington’s commentaries provide some new and interesting avenues to study old texts. In the world of PhD dissertations, that counts as an original idea.
Happy researching.
