OT ThM/PhD Programs

[Peter Bell]

PB'ers,

What are the top US and overseas OT programs and advisors? Currently in the MDiv program at WSC. Not looking into the academy for work, but the pastorate.

 

[Hamalas]

Aren't you just now starting your M.Div? It may be wisest to just take a year or two to sink into your studies. You'll probably have a much better feel for the Lord's calling and direction after you have a bit more experience (and your professors at WSC will know you well enough to give excellent recommendations, I'm sure). Just my 2 cents.

 

[R. Andrew Compton]

It's a pretty big question, Peter. There are some programs deemed "top" becase their graduates often have their pick of the academic jobs out there. Brandeis, Johns Hopkins, Harvard - those schools are considered big in the field (from a secular perspective). On the UK side of things, there are also some well-regarded programs, though others will have to speak to those. On the non-secular side of things in the US, a number of programs are producing very competent work from within a believing framework/presupposition: e.g., TEDS, Wheaton, WTS, SBTS, etc. There are others I'm sure. But so much depends on what one is looking to do with the program.

Is someone looking to study textual criticism? Archaeology? Grammar/philology/etc.? Interdisciplinary methods? A particular book or genre in the OT? Different programs have different faculty who specialize in different topics. But you have to have a topic in mind (at least viable in its broad contours) in order to even know where to begin to look to identify such faculty. And you have to be settled on what kind of methodology you wish to spend several years of your life engaged in.

Or, to consider a different angle, is someone actually looking to do biblical theology? Or maybe homiletics? I've met a number of people who express interest in OT programs only to find out that OT programs sound overly tedious and boring because actually they really are want to do biblical theology and homiletics. Certainly an OT program can aid exegesis and exegesis is fundamental to doing BT and homiletics, but there are more efficient ways of focusing on BT and homiletics than taking a journey through OT studies.

But ultimately it comes down to spending enough time learning about the field of OT studies generally to even know what kinds of work is being done in dissertations. It's only from there that you can start to determine what are the "top" programs to consider, particularly because what people out there are regarding the "top" programs, might not be good for what you're trying to do. (E.g., when I was at UCLA, I got a number of E-mails from Reformed seminary students asking if UCLA was a good place to do OT literary studies a la Alter or Fokkelman. I had to tell them No. Even though UCLA is a highly regarded program, it's not a top program for one who is looking for it to facilite research in an area that no one at UCLA is working in or really even interested in.)

In the end, what kinds of schools / topics / fields / etc. would be deemed "top" will just depend on what you are trying to accomplish, and that will take a bit of time, like the previous comment suggests. So read widely, think globally, and see what (if any) topics interest you enough to draw you into a PhD program in any discipline.

Hope that helps,

Andrew Compton

PS: when the time comes, you might consider reading through Nijay K. Gupta, Prepare, Succeed, Advance: A Guidebook for Getting a PhD in Biblical Studies and Beyond (Pickwick Publications, 2011). Not all of it will be equally relevant, but he'll orient you to the kinds of questions people should be asking.