How much breadth in History of Christianity?

[Pierre de Olivi]

Hello everybody,

I'm a long-time lurker and first-time poster. I apologize in advance if my questions seem naïve or overly-ambitious, as I am still an undergraduate, although I have planned on an academic career in religion, specifically the history of Christianity, for a long time. Essentially what I am wondering is how much breadth in terms of different regions/time periods (although not really methodologies) in the history of Christianity one may expect to sustain or cultivate in graduate school, both Master's Programs and PhDs. I know that in general theses/dissertations are highly specialized, but also that one may have areas of research and teaching interest that are much wider than the dissertation.

The religious studies department at my college (a well-regarded SLAC) has several faculty members with multiple or very broad areas of interest and from my conversations with them I have gleaned that it is possible, but not always easy, to cultivate a wide breadth of interests in and after graduate school, but it will really depend on the program, the faculty I work with, and my own work ethic and ambition. However, I wanted to hear perspectives on this from current/prospective/recent graduate students, especially those who share my area of interest. Do you find you are able to cultivate broad research/teaching interests, especially if you work on the History of Christianity? How have you been able to do that? What areas do you specifically study or plan to research or teach about?

If it helps, here are some of the main areas within the history of Christianity I am interested in studying. I hold no illusions about being able to do all of these, and would honestly be happy focusing on any one of them, but I thought knowing about how much breadth I can expect to sustain or cultivate may help me choose programs to look at and/or apply for. I've listed these roughly from most to least interested, with the caveat that those are relative terms:

• History of Syriac Christianity (incl. studies on the St. Thomas Christians)
• Early Christianity (up to ~4th century)
• History of Coptic Christianity
• Christianity and Colonialism, especially but not exclusively in India (this kind of dovetails with my interests in St. Thomas Christians)
• Medieval Christian thought in the Latin West, especially around the 12th century Renaissance

I am at present mostly looking at religious studies/theology programs (mostly Master's programs with an eye on a PhD), but am also open to Near Eastern Studies, Medieval Studies, or History programs if they seem sufficiently relevant. Does anybody have some relevant experiences or interests to share? Thanks in advance for your time.

[Deep Fried Angst]

Being able to cultivate a wide interest depends on multiple factors. Before I get to these you should note that you have spoken about professors who have wide interests. It is common for scholars to widen their breadth of interests given the time and desire to do so. It is easy to see the product of 20 years of study and scholarship and forget the fact that it took 20 years to get there. 

The Factors (well just those I can think of right now):

1. Course work requirements. Depending on the school you may be handed a list of courses to take or you may be given free reign (more so at the Doctoral level) to work with your adviser to create a schedule of classes that suits your interests and needs. Realize at the MA level you may only have 3-4 electives and some of those may need to be taken in other areas. 
2. Course scheduling. While better at the graduate and doctoral level, you may get left with a class not available due to a conflict or not come up during your coursework years due to scheduling and/or professor sabbatical. 
3. Faculty at the school. You have listed a wide range of interests, many of which do not always get a dedicated scholar at a school due to the other needs of a historical theology/history of Christianity department (e.g., the Reformation, Eastern Orthodoxy, 19th and 20th century theologies, etc.). 
4. Exams for Ph.D. - who picks the content, how broad or specific are they going to be? 
   1. At my current school, Historical Theology Ph.D.'s work with their adviser to choose 3 from 13 available topics ranging from Syriac Christianity to Romanticism and Theology and beyond. That allows for some choice of interests. 
5. You. Will you search out books, articles, etc. on topics outside of what you need to do for class? If you have an interest in a specific subject, especially a narrow subject, it is often up to you as the student to take the initiative to make it happen. 

Additionally, remember that while you are seeking a degree in the History of Christianity, there is a lot to cover outside of your interests. It may be best to talk about three levels of understanding. 1) Proficiency - the base subject matter for your field, 2) Excellency - typically your PhD coursework/exam areas, 3) Specialty - typically your dissertation area. You can add areas of excellence and specialization as time goes on but you shouldn't seek that level of understanding for too many areas lest you attempt too much in the short time of a MA and PhD. 

[dr. t]

If you intend to become an academic, then for PhD work I would strongly suggest that you look more toward history than toward religious studies, if history of Christianity is your thing, particularly if your username is indicative of your interests. It will be much harder to find a home with an area studies PhD. 

For MA programs, either is fine, and you should expect to pick up a general knowledge with a focus in a smaller subfield. HDS and YDS are both excellent choices here, though I'd just note that Kevin Madigan is pretty uninterested in the subjects of his own earlier work at this point.

[Pierre de Olivi]

Thanks, everybody, for your helpful comments! I will keep the advice and factors in mind as I look at programs, and am of course still open to hearing other perspectives.

19 hours ago, telkanuru said:

If you intend to become an academic, then for PhD work I would strongly suggest that you look more toward history than toward religious studies, if history of Christianity is your thing, particularly if your username is indicative of your interests. It will be much harder to find a home with an area studies PhD. 

For MA programs, either is fine, and you should expect to pick up a general knowledge with a focus in a smaller subfield. HDS and YDS are both excellent choices here, though I'd just note that Kevin Madigan is pretty uninterested in the subjects of his own earlier work at this point.

Haha, my username does indeed reflect some of my interests! I find Olivi one of the most interesting Christian thinkers in the Medieval West. In terms of getting a PhD in history, do history departments usually look unfavorably on Masters from religion or theology departments if the work is heavily historical in scope or methodology? (I assume direct-to-PhDs in history would be rather rare given my interests, but if not, would a Bachelor's in religious studies greatly weaken an application?)

[dr. t]

15 hours ago, Pierre de Olivi said:

do history departments usually look unfavorably on Masters from religion or theology departments if the work is heavily historical in scope or methodology?

Nope! Sorry, I should have made that more clear. As long as it's clear you're doing history in your writing sample, you should be totally fine.

[marXian]

I would also add that it's completely normal to be interested in a lot of different things as an undergrad. If you're academically inclined, everything is new and exciting as an undergrad because you're discovering a lot for the first time all at once, and it's easy to want to be ambitious (I also remember desiring the kind of breadth you're talking about.) As you progress through grad school, you'll likely find yourself drawn toward a specific area within one of the four things you list. You'll also find that the deeper you dive into any one topic, the more aware you become of your lack of knowledge in that area and you'll want to do two things: 1) Keep exploring that area to fill in those knowledge gaps as much as possible and 2) narrow your interests to something that's relatively manageable to gain significant expertise in within a 5-6 year PhD program. It's not that you'll completely lose interest in the other things, but you'll realize that those will have to go on the back burner for awhile and maybe become projects later in your career.

Earning a PhD is as much about learning how to dive deeply into a subject area and make yourself an authority on a topic as it is about actually becoming that authority at the end of the program. Once you've done your dissertation and (with an immense amount of luck) secured a job, you can begin branching out into other areas of interest. As dmeuller mentions above, becoming that conversant with multiple areas of interest can take a really long time--and it should. 

[mdivgirl]

My only advice for the earlier times is make sure you have the languages required for the field(s) you wish to pursue.  For example, it's hard to get into a good medieval program if you don't already have Latin.  (Which is why I switched from Medieval to early modern English history in the long run.)

[Pierre de Olivi]

On ‎8‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 8:07 PM, mdivgirl said:

My only advice for the earlier times is make sure you have the languages required for the field(s) you wish to pursue.  For example, it's hard to get into a good medieval program if you don't already have Latin.  (Which is why I switched from Medieval to early modern English history in the long run.)

Thanks for this tip; it's consistent with what I've heard from Professors too. I guess I should have added that I'm also a Classics major so I'll have 4 years of Latin and 3 years of Greek (both mostly Classical but a bit of Medieval Latin and a fair amount of Koine Greek) by the time I graduate, and I hope to at least start Syriac or Coptic using some combinations of tutoring (several profs at my school know each but there aren't courses in either) and summer intensives before I graduate. I'm also definitely open to Master's or Post-Bacs for the chance to grind out more languages or get extra practice.

[dr. t]

39 minutes ago, Pierre de Olivi said:

Thanks for this tip; it's consistent with what I've heard from Professors too. I guess I should have added that I'm also a Classics major so I'll have 4 years of Latin and 3 years of Greek (both mostly Classical but a bit of Medieval Latin and a fair amount of Koine Greek) by the time I graduate, and I hope to at least start Syriac or Coptic using some combinations of tutoring (several profs at my school know each but there aren't courses in either) and summer intensives before I graduate. I'm also definitely open to Master's or Post-Bacs for the chance to grind out more languages or get extra practice.

Modern languages? Latin and Greek seem sufficient for what you've expressed as your interests. What about French and German, the latter being particularly important?

[Pierre de Olivi]

1 hour ago, telkanuru said:

Modern languages? Latin and Greek seem sufficient for what you've expressed as your interests. What about French and German, the latter being particularly important?

Good catch! I took a condensed version of first-year German (speaking/listening and reading/writing) last semester and plan to continue with intermediate German this year, hopefully either taking advanced electives or the "reading for research" course my third year. French I don't have much experience in but hope to learn it later, at least for reading if not also speaking/listening.

[AGingeryGinger]

On 8/15/2017 at 8:07 PM, mdivgirl said:

My only advice for the earlier times is make sure you have the languages required for the field(s) you wish to pursue.  For example, it's hard to get into a good medieval program if you don't already have Latin.  (Which is why I switched from Medieval to early modern English history in the long run.)

Middle English is a lot easier to learn than Latin lol

 

[MarthUser]

On 7/31/2017 at 10:17 PM, Pierre de Olivi said:

Do you find you are able to cultivate broad research/teaching interests, especially if you work on the History of Christianity? How have you been able to do that? What areas do you specifically study or plan to research or teach about?

I would say it depends heavily on what you want to truly study. I can give you my perspective from my field which is History of Christianity in the U.S. You can pursue a study of the history of Christianity from three possible departments/arrangements:

1. Pursue a history PhD from a religiously-affiliated research school like Baylor and Notre Dame. The history departments there focus a lot on the history of religious intellectual movements and the intersection of political/social histories with Protestant denominational histories. Students who graduate with a history PhD from these schools tend to be recruited by seminaries and state-schools, but rarely by big research universities (at least from the small sample size I've gathered). These graduates end up joining associations like the American Historical Association (AHA) and maybe American Society of Church History (ASCH)

2. Pursue a church history or historical theology PhD from a seminary (like Princeton Theological) or theology school (like Boston University's School of Theology). This one is similar to the history PhD from religiously-affiliated schools mentioned above, but the expectation is that you're going to be teaching in a seminary capacity or maybe in a theology department. These graduates end up joining the ASCH and the American Academy of Religion (AAR)

3. Pursue a religion PhD from a research university. This one is different in that you're studying religion rather than history, which means that you're less expected to do historiography and more theories on religion (think Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, Pierre Bourdieu, etc..). These scholars tend to join conferences like AAR.

In short, there is definitely some options of study within each department/program, but you will be encouraged to "broaden" your horizons in different ways. In a history department of a religious research university, perhaps they might allow you to take historiography courses and histories of specific religious traditions in particular regions of the world. In a theology school/seminary context, they might want you to take more biblical studies (which means Greek and Hebrew), theology, and maybe a bit of church history. In a religion department, you will be encouraged to take religion and theory courses. If your goal is ultimately a PhD, the question to ask yourself would be: where do you see yourself teaching?

On 8/1/2017 at 9:04 PM, Pierre de Olivi said:

Haha, my username does indeed reflect some of my interests! I find Olivi one of the most interesting Christian thinkers in the Medieval West. In terms of getting a PhD in history, do history departments usually look unfavorably on Masters from religion or theology departments if the work is heavily historical in scope or methodology? (I assume direct-to-PhDs in history would be rather rare given my interests, but if not, would a Bachelor's in religious studies greatly weaken an application?)

I found that history PhD programs don't really look favorably on MAs in religion/theology/MDivs/MTS. I applied to several history departments who had professors who studied the Puritans and was recommended to apply to their MA programs instead (I had an MDiv/STM with a church history focus, which is the rough equivalent of an MAR). Even though, one could argue, the study of the Puritans could be done in both religious or historical contexts and am familiar with the historiography of the Puritans, history departments still suggested that I obtain an MA in history.

Edited January 23, 2018 by MarthUser

[KA.DINGER.RA]

In terms of schools to which you should apply, definitely give Notre Dame a look. We have a wonderful MTS with (from what I understand are) amazing HC faculty. We also have a  highly regarded ECS Masters that is independent of the Theology program.

Since you already have Latin and Greek, you'll definitely want to focus on other ancient languages within the field. We just hired a professor who will be teaching Coptic, Syriac, and about a dozen other much more highly specialized languages.

[mdivgirl]

11 hours ago, AGingeryGinger said:

Middle English is a lot easier to learn than Latin lol

 

Unfortunately, my interest was medieval France.  Fortunately, 17th-18th century English is easier than both.

[Pierre de Olivi]

On 1/23/2018 at 7:33 AM, KA.DINGER.RA said:

In terms of schools to which you should apply, definitely give Notre Dame a look. We have a wonderful MTS with (from what I understand are) amazing HC faculty. We also have a  highly regarded ECS Masters that is independent of the Theology program.

Since you already have Latin and Greek, you'll definitely want to focus on other ancient languages within the field. We just hired a professor who will be teaching Coptic, Syriac, and about a dozen other much more highly specialized languages.

Thank you for the recommendation! I've actually been looking at Notre Dame, both for its MTS and its MA in Early Christian Studies. Glad to hear I'll be able to hone some of my language skills too.

Incidentally, does anybody know of American scholars or departments who specialize in studies of the St. Thomas Christians? Even with the upsurge of interest in Syriac Studies, most of the scholars of this tradition seem to be in Europe or India.

Edited January 26, 2018 by Pierre de Olivi