Please help review my SOP

[Afe]

Hi everyone. Please I really need help with my SOP. I'm an international student and I'm applying to the M.T.S. in Biblical Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Not sure if what I've written is good enough, so any advice/comment/critique would really be helpful. Thanks in advance.

STATEMENT OF INTENT

Like most Nigerians, I had an upbringing that was both religious and conservative. The upshot was that I grew up with a dedication to what I considered to be the “true” form of the Christian faith, which to my mind was a faith grounded fully in the teachings of the Bible. For me, the Bible was the word of God, and it contained no error whatsoever. Anything and everything it said was true in every sense of the term, and it was my duty as a Christian to abide by whatever it said, hook, line and sinker. Anyone who believed otherwise had bought a one way ticket to the lake of fire. My conservative view of the Bible and the Christian faith as a whole was drastically altered when I majored in Religious Studies as an undergraduate. At that time, I became exposed to the historical-critical study of the Scriptures as well as other fields in the academic study of religion.

Whereas the study of religion in general made me tolerant to other religious views, my acquaintance with Biblical Studies had two major effects on my life. On the one hand, it triggered my passion for the academic study of the Bible, especially after taking the courses “the Formative Period of Israelite History”, “the Synoptic Gospels”, and the basic language courses (especially Greek). From that point on, I decided that I was going to become a scholar in the field of New Testament studies. Currently, my interests lie in the study of Paul, the Historical Jesus, Second Temple Judaism, Christology, Biblical interpretation, Biblical ethics and theology, and the Bible in (post)modern society. My interest in teaching and research in the field has been fuelled even further by my one-year stint as Christian Religious Studies teacher at a Secondary School in Nigeria between September 2014 and July 2015. On the other hand, my contact with Biblical Studies has raised many questions regarding my faith such as: how to reconcile contradictions between certain Christian doctrines and passages of the Bible, what to make of theological discrepancies within the scriptures themselves, and how to address controversial ethical teachings of the Bible such as its perceived view on homosexuality and abortion.

I am strongly convinced that my academic and professional interests can be satisfied by the M.T.S. (Biblical Studies) program at Notre Dame, as the research interests of some of the scholars there are aligned with my own. To name but a few, John Meier is famous for his ground-breaking four-volume work on the Historical Jesus (A Marginal Jew), and Candida Moss has published several articles that are concerned with the interpretation of scripture (I have personally read “1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 in Rabbinic Perspective” co-written with Yale Scholar Joel Baden and “The Man with the Flow of Power: Porous Bodies in Mark 5:25-34). As such, I am certain that studying at Notre Dame will furnish me with the required knowledge and skills for a Ph.D. and an eventual career in the field. Moreover, given Notre Dame’s integration of scholarship and matters of faith, with an outlook that is neither too conservative nor too liberal (unlike other institutions which lean in one direction or another), I believe that it would be the perfect place for me to learn how to address my aforementioned theological concerns, balance them properly with my scholarship and as a result, develop my life as a Christian.

Furthermore, and in light of your Department’s commitment to diversity, I am convinced that as a Nigerian, I can contribute by bringing in an African-Protestant experience and perspective on the Bible and faith which will no doubt aid in broadening the academic and theological horizons of my prospective teachers and colleagues. Likewise, I myself will be enriched by interacting directly with non-African and non-Protestant views.

On the whole, it is my utmost desire to work with the entire community at Notre Dame in my pursuit of graduate theological studies.  

    

[Promit B]

The upshot was that I grew up with a dedication to what something which I considered to be the “true” form of the Christian faith, which to and my faith was fully grounded in the teachings of Bible. For me, the Bible was the word of God, and it contained no error whatsoever . I considered the Bible to be the word of God which contains no errors.

On the other hand, my contact with Biblical Studies has raised many questions in my mind regarding the faith such as: .....

as the research interests of some of the scholars align with my own

my scholarship, and as a result, develop my life as a Christian.

Furthermore, and in light of your dDepartment’s commitment to diversity, I am convinced that as a Nigerian, I can contribute by bringing in an African-Protestant experience and perspective on the Bible and faith which will, no doubt, aid in broadening the academic and theological horizons of my prospective teachers and colleagues .

 Likewise, I myself will be enriched by interacting directly with non-African and non-Protestant views. Consider rewriting and/or reframing this sentence.

On the whole, it is my utmost desire to work with the entire community at Notre Dame in my pursuit of graduate theological studies. Consider rewriting and/or reframing this sentence. It's not clear what you meant to say.