Language Prep for PhD

[ore]

I am just starting the MTS program at Harvard Divinity. If I am interested in possibly applying for a PhD later on, what would be the best ancient and modern languages to study during the MTS?

[Sparky]

I am just starting the MTS program at Harvard Divinity. If I am interested in possibly applying for a PhD later on, what would be the best ancient and modern languages to study during the MTS?

What area are you looking to do the PhD in? For Christianity, you will want either French or German for a modern language (both for the PhD, but definitely have one by application time), unless you're doing something like liberation theology, in which case Spanish is critical if you are looking western Christianity and medieval or later, Latin. If patristics, you'll want both Latin and Greek; if eastern, Greek is paramount and Syriac or Coptic is a nice addition.

If you're interested in Syriac Christianity, I *think* there is more secondary material out there in French than in German. I'm a medievalist (Western Eur), and between French and German it's a toss-up. Most modern stuff, probably German is more important.

But get either Latin or Greek, both if possible.

(If you're doing Judaism, Islam, etc. or comparative work, you'll likely need the primary source language for that religion as well--Hebrew, Arabic, etc).

[sacklunch]

I was at the HDS orientation dinner/social earlier today, so hello (friend from UG is a second year MTS). I'm doing Greek, Hebrew, and likely a summer course for German (I'm MTS biblical studies).

-Nick

[Postbib Yeshuist]

Sparky asked the important question: what do you want to do. For me, as an example, Arabic is critical since I'm doing a critical approach to Christianity's involvement from an Islamic perspective. I think Sparky's suggestion work as a general rule of thumb, but if you could give us more to go on, that would certainly be helpful.