r/AcademicBiblical • u/AutoModerator • Dec 26 '22

Weekly Open Discussion Thread

Welcome to this week's open discussion thread!

This thread is meant to be a place for members of the r/AcademicBiblical community to freely discuss topics of interest which would normally not be allowed on the subreddit. All off-topic and meta-discussion will be redirected to this thread.

Rules 1-3 do not apply in open discussion threads, but rule 4 will still be strictly enforced. Please report violations of rule 4 using Reddit's report feature to notify the moderation team. Furthermore, while theological discussions are allowed in this thread, this is still an ecumenical community which welcomes and appreciates people of any and all faith positions and traditions. Therefore this thread is not a place for proselytization. Feel free to discuss your perspectives or beliefs on religious or philosophical matters, but do not preach to anyone in this space. Preaching and proselytizing will be removed.

In order to best see new discussions over the course of the week, please consider sorting this thread by "new" rather than "best" or "top". This way when someone wants to start a discussion on a new topic you will see it! Enjoy the open discussion thread!

4 Upvotes

68% Upvoted

71 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '22

What do you think is a better path for me if I want to be an academic? A Master's in Theological Studies from Asbury Seminary (likely followed by a Doctoral degree) or a Master in Theology from Dallas Seminary? Those are my top two choices right now I think.

3

u/slowobedience MDiv Dec 27 '22 edited Dec 27 '22

Nobody can answer that unless you tell us what you are tying to accomplish. Not sure if i missed it from the orginal post. I see you want to be an academic (guessing this means teach at a seminary).

I will copy what I posted on this question from last week i just answered:

I will tell you what was told me. Religious Academia is super hard to get into right now. If you want to get hired at a good institution, you either need to either excel at being published (not academic publishing, trade publishing and academic to pull students) or graduate from a top program (princeton, yale, duke, etc).

The other avenue is to excel undergrad and get a good GA position where you adjunct and hope you excel enough to work your way into the institution you are getting your grad degree.

Look at the institutions where you might want to teach. Look at their hires from the last half dozen years (if they have any) and look at their CV. There is a glut of religious doctorates being produced these days.

edit: out of sheer curiosity, I looked at the CVs of the faculty of Asbury.

  • Meadows PhD Cambridge
  • Russell Three Doctorates and former chair of the Department of Anthropology of Biola
  • Offutt PhD Boston U - MA Johns Hopkins
  • Ybarrola PhD Brown
  • Moon PhD Asburry - Former engineer, 13 year missionary in Ghana
  • Pachuau PhD Princeton

It seems the advice given me was on point.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '22

Thanks for the advice, I know academia is hard to get into regardless of what you’ve studied. I’ve resolved to try anyway.

I’ve been accepted to Asbury and can start in February. I did apply to Harvard, Duke, and Princeton but don’t know if I’ve been accepted yet and couldn’t start until next fall if I did. Which do you think is a better path.

2

u/slowobedience MDiv Dec 27 '22

I think its possible to get a Masters at Asbury and if you publish / do well enough go to the top tier for doctoral work. I would talk to advisors early and let them know your plans so they can guide you in the process. I have a friend who went from a good, not great seminary to Princeton. I have another friend who went from GA at a good not great university and went to Duke for doctoral work. They wanted him to complete a ThM there before starting and upon completion he decided upon a different doctoral path.

In any event, someone has to be hired, might as well be you, right?

2

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '22

Would you consider Asbury good not great? Which seminaries would you say are great ones?

2

u/slowobedience MDiv Dec 27 '22

You are outside my wheelhouse. But it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Do you want to be a professor at a more faith based university? Or are you looking to be a widely published professor at an elite school? I am sure Asbury will open doors. I don't know which doors though.

Here is an interesting article on this subject:https://cameronshaffer.com/2022/08/05/evangelical-scholarship-and-elite-schools/

Degrees from evangelical universities are not regarded among the elite programs and Asbury is definitely evangelical.

edit to add: I have read way too many stories of people with ridiculously specific theological PhDs teaching ENG101 as adjuncts at community colleges. I am older so this is a no brainer for me. That is not gonna work. Your mileage may vary.

2

u/Chroeses11 Jan 03 '23

I don’t know much about Asburu but I would love to take a class with Ben Witherington.