Hope for Amateur Scholars

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
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Secret Alias
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Hope for Amateur Scholars

Post by Secret Alias »

F F Bruce did not have a PhD.
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Peter Kirby
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Re: Hope for Amateur Scholars

Post by Peter Kirby »

The totem pole of academia is prestigious academic job > tenure track job > non tenure track job > postdoc job > phd > master's > bachelor's. If you get a phd, the goal posts move. You just become a failed or "vocational-technical" phd student if you never get an academic job or a "failed academic" if you get one for a while. Most with a phd fall into one of these failure categories.

Today's professors want respect to come with their position, and for them, to get that, a lack of respect needs to be conferred by them on others.

Bruce had a university job teaching Greek, so he has the respect of other professors in that much, which is better than a phd:
After teaching Greek for several years, first at the University of Edinburgh and then at the University of Leeds, he became head of the Department of Biblical History and Literature at the University of Sheffield in 1947. Aberdeen University bestowed an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree on him in 1957.[3] In 1959 he moved to the University of Manchester where he became Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis.[4] He wrote over 40 books and served as editor of The Evangelical Quarterly and the Palestine Exploration Quarterly. He retired from teaching in 1978.
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mlinssen
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Re: Hope for Amateur Scholars

Post by mlinssen »

Peter Kirby wrote: Tue Oct 27, 2020 6:15 pm The totem pole of academia is prestigious academic job > tenure track job > non tenure track job > postdoc job > phd > master's > bachelor's. If you get a phd, the goal posts move. You just become a failed or "vocational-technical" phd student if you never get an academic job or a "failed academic" if you get one for a while. Most with a phd fall into one of these failure categories.

Today's professors want respect to come with their position, and for them, to get that, a lack of respect needs to be conferred by them on others.

Bruce had a university job teaching Greek, so he has the respect of other professors in that much, which is better than a phd:
After teaching Greek for several years, first at the University of Edinburgh and then at the University of Leeds, he became head of the Department of Biblical History and Literature at the University of Sheffield in 1947. Aberdeen University bestowed an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree on him in 1957.[3] In 1959 he moved to the University of Manchester where he became Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis.[4] He wrote over 40 books and served as editor of The Evangelical Quarterly and the Palestine Exploration Quarterly. He retired from teaching in 1978.
All large institutions are alike. There is only one major treadmill and once you're in it, the clock starts ticking and you're expected to reach the next step in due time.
It is the same Game everywhere, only the Rules are different

There are basically three choices:
you sell your soul and participate at fierce competition, and get ahead of the pack of rats by being rattier than most if not all, and at the end you win, get worshipped and feel pretty smug;
you don't get it and participate anyway and get stuck after 10-15 years and hate your work and yourself for the rest of your life;
you ignore most of it, do the basics, and profit from everything that falls off the big table

I did the second and got out after 14 years
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