Best schools for New Testament PhD?

[oikodendron]

What schools are in your opinion the best places to do a PhD in The New Testament or Early Christianity? Which schools would most likely secure a future university-level teaching position?

[ddsdevil]

Well obviously you aren't guaranteed anything in this economy, but the best that I've heard would be Duke and U of Chicago.

[braun_braun]

It obviously depends on the methods you want to master. I would say that for traditionalist focuses Yale (although I wouldn't consider Prof. Martin a traditionalist at all), Duke, Emory and Notre Dame are excellent bets. For postmodernism and critical approaches I would mention Vanderbilt, Drew and GTU.

[Mathētēs]

As braun_braun implied, "best" can be subjective depending on a student's interests and approach. I would appreciate learning what, in addition to academic excellence, are the core values of these NT programs? I am particularly interested in the distinctions between Yale, Duke, and Notre Dame. Going beyond catalog descriptions, what are the overarching attitudes and approaches in these programs and of their leading professors? For example, in what way is Yale a "traditionalist" in contrast to "critical" program? To what extent does Notre Dame being a Catholic institution impact theology in its NT program? Thank you for your input!

[oikodendron]

Thanks for your comments! They're all very useful. I understand "best" is a very subjective term, and a PhD from a certain school will be assessed differently depending on where I apply for a position. What I am after here, is the general prestige a school will have with NT professors around this country. I thought once I have some kind of a ranking, I will go on to look at each school and faculty more in depth to see which would suit me the best. The rankings that I have found are either out-dated or overly biased. (And neither Yale, Drew, or GTU score high - all mentioned by you.)

It obviously depends on the methods you want to master. I would say that for traditionalist focuses Yale (although I wouldn't consider Prof. Martin a traditionalist at all), Duke, Emory and Notre Dame are excellent bets. For postmodernism and critical approaches I would mention Vanderbilt, Drew and GTU.

Your distinction between traditionalist and postmodern/critical is interesting, braun_braun. The traditionalists are more likely to study the New Testament with historical methods, and interested in the broad scope of NT issues and theology, while the postmodern/critical are more likely to do reader-response stuff, and interested in gender-, queer-, and liberationism-issues? Help me out here, I'm European and not too familiar with the academic or theological landscape over here. :oops: My interest in the NT has been historical, and the methods I favor are pretty traditional. As long as traditionalism, does not imply confessional "clinging" and unwillingness to be critical, I don't mind being a traditionalist.

[oikodendron]

By the way, how much does denominational affiliation affect chances of being admitted to top tier schools? I would assume it matters more at, say, Catholic than Methodist schools?

[braun_braun]

I also come from an european background and that is why I label as 'traditionalist' those approaches that incorporate historical, sociological or literary criticism. By 'traditionalist' I mainly mean those programs which study the NT as a corpus of readings with an inherent meaning, regardless of the contextual circumstances of the reader. I consider 'critical' programs those much more focused on how we, as readers, construct the meaning in those texts. I realize that this division is an oversimplification but still it is very useful in order to choose a graduate program... Regarding this point i would consider the following question, do you want to focus on languages/history stuff or are you more prone to engage with Marx, Foucault, Derrida, Spivak, Butler.... so as to 'search for meaning' in the christian scriptures?

This latter focus is hardly available in Europe and that's why I came to the States. On the other hand, rankings are so 'subjective'. Oikodendron if you search in internet for good advices to succeed in gradschool most webpages will tell you that more important than the prestige of the school is the prestige of certain professors. I would say this is a very good advice to follow as long as you balance it with a prestigious college. Again 'fit' is everything in the admission process. All those schools highly ranked only admit 1-2 students per year, out of a pool of 40-80. Even if you got an outstanding application they won't take you in unless you are a perfect fit.

Finally, I think Drew and GTU (although not mentioned in those rankings) are excellent programs which have become more prestigious over time. The only problem there is funding.

[oikodendron]

Vive la flamboyance! (or whatever) Thanks for your explanation braun_braun, very helpful! Of course America takes better care of the European tradition than Europe does... I have thoroughly enjoyed Derrida, but when I study the NT, there are other things I'm after. Since you're European (or studied there), I want to ask you another question: Do you have any feeling yet how your European education/background is serving you when applying here?