Fall 2020/Fuller Online

NT801/NS581

Green

NT801/NS581: RESEARCH METHODS IN NEW TESTAMENT STUDY (4 Units: 195 hours; 6 Units: 374 hours). Joel B. Green

DESCRIPTION: A seminar in which participants explore through readings, practice, and critical discussion a range of methods employed in contemporary NT study. The entire research process will be discussed, modeled, and practiced. In Fall Quarter 2020, illustrative materials for NT801/NS581 will relate to the representation of Jesus’s death in the NT.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Having successfully completed this course, participants will have demonstrated the ability:

To describe, evaluate, and use a variety of major approaches to NT study today—including diachronic, synchronic, and reader-oriented
To discern what methods are appropriate to particular problems or questions in NT interpretation
To construct, follow, and revise a research agenda around a NT text
To engage in thoughtful and generous criticism of the research agenda and products of others

RELATIONSHIP TOLEARNING OUTCOMES: NT801: Addresses the CATS PhD PLO: “Research skills appropriate to an area of theological exploration, sufficient to engage in original research and writing that advances theological understanding in the service of the global church.” NS581: Electives fulfill the MAT PLO that states “Students will have demonstrated academic capacities appropriate to an area of focus in a theological discipline or to interdisciplinary theological study.”

COURSE FORMAT: The seminar will meet weekly for three-hour sessions for a total of 33 hours of classroom instruction for presentations, practice, and critical discussion of a range of methods employed in contemporary NT study, plus 44 hours of directed learning activities for NS581 students for a total of 77 instructional hours. Students in NT801 will have 193 hours of directed learning activities for a total of 226 instructional hours.

REQUIRED READING: NT801: 2300 pages; NS581: 1300 pp.

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, and William T. Fitzgerald. The Craft of Research. 4th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. (ISBN 978-0226065663. 317 pp. $17.00)

Green, Joel B., ed. Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010. (ISBN 978-0802864208. 432 pp. $28.00)

Herman, David. Basic Elements of Narrative. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. (ISBN 978-1405141543. 272 pp. $42.50)

Nestle, E., and K. Aland. Novum Testamentum Graece. 28th ed. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012. (ISBN: 978-3438051585. 1008 pp. $74.95)

The SBL Handbook of Style for Biblical Studies and Related Disciplines. 2nd ed. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2014.

Additional required readings are noted on the course schedule.

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:

Attendance at and readiness to participate in all sessions of the seminar is expected [Reading for NS581: 87 hours, NT801: 153 hours].
Weekly assignments on method (35%). [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1-2.] [NS581: 28 hours, NT801: 56 hours].
Major research paper (50%). [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #2-3.] [NS581: 45 hours, NT801: 130 hours].
Critical Response to Seminar Presentation (15%). [This assignment is related to outcome #4.] [NS581/NT801, 5 hours].

PREREQUISITES: NS581: Written permission of the professor. NT801: ThM or PhD students.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Counts as biblical elective in the 120 MDiv, 80 MAT, and 80 MATM Programs (Fall 2015).

FINAL EXAMINATION: None.