I turned in my thesis tonight after the second to final stage of editing. My readers have a week to browse over it one more time and let me know if I should change anything else then it is time to get with our librarian to begin the process of preparing it for print. Someday if you are in Portland, OR, go to Western Seminary’s library and you’ll find it in the section with books on the Epistle to the Romans, covered in dust and spider webs, but finished!
Academics, Master's Thesis, Seminary
the archives near Emmaus 
how long is it? how long did it take you to write (complete)? how do you feel about it, ultimately? I read, I think it was Marc Cortez, somewhere that there are two types of thesis (for Master students)- one where you summarize various positions but don’t really give a defense, and another where you do, basically what doctoral students have to do, and that is come up with something “new”- so to speak. What route did you go?
Congrats!
The final product is always a relief.
Congratulations, Brian!
Have you thought about publishing it or portions of it? If it’s worth you writing it, it’s probably worth many reading it 🙂
Well done! When do you defend?
Mon
It is about one hundred and six pages long. I feel like it is OK. I wrote on Romans 8.18-25, the Genesis echo of this passage, and how it fits into the ebb and flow of the epistle. That said, Romans has so much secondary literature that it felt like an overwhelming task at times. It was inevitable that I would finish it knowing there could be blind spots all over the place or authors with which I should have interacted but could not.
I did attempt to do something “new” in that I wanted to show that Paul uses many Genesis echos in Romans to establish the plausibility of the echos in 8.18-25. I will do an oral defense on Wednesday, March 21st.
Jason
Thank you!
JohnDave
Indeed!
Dave
While I don’t know that the whole body of the thesis is worthy of print I do think some adjustments could be made to focus solely on the Genesis echos in Romans as a whole. That may be something worth trying to print!
@Andrew
March 21st.
I am personally very excited about this. Will there be a digital copy available?
Congrats!
Congratulations, Brian! This is a real accomplishment. I have something collecting dust at Multnomah’s library on I Corinthians 1:17-25 😉 .
Paul
I think I may post each chapter as a PDF on the “Essays/Papers” page.
James
Thank you!
Bobby
Thank you! Our legacies will be dusty legacies it seems!
The source of much sneezing.
I think it is a great idea for you to make it available here at the blog, once it is indeed available; this way you can mitigate the problem of dust.
True!
Can we assume your recent posts about job prospects for seminarians is a consequence of the need to decide ‘what next’ after revisions are done?
What is next (if we can ask)?
I am aiming for doctoral work. Those details are still being worked on though.
Well, prayers of discernment, opportunity, and God’s purpose for you then …!
Thank you!
Congratulations, Brian!
Thanks Daniel!
Brian and Bobby: Because GFES theses are submitted electronically, I will not be contributing to the sneezes of the rest of population, so take that!