DESCRIPTION: This is a 6-unit seminar for doctoral students, also offered at the 500-level as a 4-unit course open to a limited number of master's level students as approved by the professor, in which participants will explore through readings, practice, and critical discussion the range of methods employed in contemporary New Testament study. The entire research process will be discussed, modeled, and practiced. In Fall 2008, illustrative materials for NT801 will relate to the representation of the death of Jesus in the New Testament.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Having successfully completed this course, participants should be able (1) to describe, evaluate, and use the major approaches to New Testament study today; (2) to determine what methods are appropriate to particular problems or questions in New Testament interpretation; (3) to construct, follow, and revise a research agenda around a New Testament text or area of concern to New Testament study; and (4) to engage in thoughtful and generous criticism of the research agenda and products of others.

RELEVANCE FOR MINISTRY: A sound research method reflecting critical abilities; the capacity to develop and pursue one's own research agenda in the service of the church, academy, and larger society; and the practice of and critical reflection on the vocation of New Testament scholarship in its research dimension and in the context of the larger academic community are central to ministries for which the ThM and PhD serve as preparation.

COURSE FORMAT: The course meets weekly for presentations on method, review of assignments, and practice of methods. The final week of the course will involve student presentations of work and critical responses to that work.

REQUIRED READING:

Alexander, Patrick H., et al., eds. The SBL Handbook of Style for Ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, and Early Christian Studies. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1999.

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Green, Joel B., ed. Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.

Selections from the following:

Abbott, H. Porter. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Aland, Kurt, and Barbara Aland. The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989.

Green, Joel B., and Max Turner, eds. Between Two Horizons: Spanning New Testament Studies and Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.

Greenblatt, Stephen. "Culture." In Critical Terms for Literary Study, edited by Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin, 225-32. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

McKnight, Edgar V., and Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, eds., The New Literary Criticism and the New Testament. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity, 1994.

McKnight, Scot. Jesus and His Death: Historiography, the Historical Jesus, and Atonement Theory. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2005.

Nickelsburg, George W. E. "The Genre and Function of the Markan Passion Narrative." HTR 73 (1980): 153-84.

Sugirtharajah, R. S., ed. Vernacular Hermeneutics. The Bible and Postcolonialism 2. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.

Sweetser, Eve S. From Etymology to Pragmatics: Metaphorical and Cultural Aspects of Semantic Structure. Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 54. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Baird, William. History of New Testament Research. 2 vols. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992, 2003.

Brown, Raymond E. The Death of the Messiah--From Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives. 2 vols. Anchor Bible Reference Library. New York: Doubleday, 1994.

Carroll, John T., and Joel B. Green. The Death of Jesus in Early Christianity. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995.

Porter, Stanley E. A Handbook to the Exegesis of the New Testament. Leiden: Brill, 2002.

1. Attendance at and readiness to participate in all sessions of the seminar is expected.

2. Weekly Assignments on Method (35% of final grade).

3. Major Research Paper (50%).

4. Critical Response to Seminar Presentation (15%).

The professor will work with master's students to adapt requirements 2 and 3.