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October 16, 2006
My Thesis... or, What are you doing over there anyway?
I realise that not everyone is going to be interested in this post, but thought I'd do it anyway. Besides, we've not put anything up for almost a month now and this thesis is in large part the reason (though it's also because classes have started and I'm working with two classes and doing a little lecturing for one). I sometimes get a kick out of telling people that I'm spending three years looking at four verses from Jeremiah (31:31-34). That's something like 9 months per verse....
Actually that's not far from the truth. My whole thesis is about the interpretation of those verses and the promise of the "new covenant". I'm attempting to take contemporary discussions on the text (to which I'm trying to contribute) and place them in dialogue with part of the history of interpretation. So I've got a chapter on Jerome and Augustine, one on medieval interpretations and Thomas Aquinas in particular, and just turned in a chapter on 16th century. The gameplan is to turn in a brief look at some 17th century folks (the Reformed Scholastics, who hold a special place in my heart... philosophy, logic, theology, exegesis, and all in one place: could you ask for more?) -- which should be done in about 2-3 weeks. Then put together a paper on 20th century discussions, the most recent spate of material has come from Germany and mostly Roman Catholic circles (in case you're interested). Then the last three chapters will be my own proposal for reading the text with regard to the role it plays in the book of Jeremiah -- chapters that are already in draft form and should take only a few months at the most to get into final form.
The reason for this post today is that I just had a very good meeting with one of my supervisors about the Jerome/Augustine and the 16th century chapters and it looks like I could get them into basically final draft form within a day or two (mainly just typos). The medieval paper is still awaiting some resources to come in, but all in all it looks like I may be able to hit my "submit in May" goal. That will make a total of three academic years (a little less), and by then I should have these 4 verses down....
| By j and b | 07:57 PM
Comments
Oh, that's all you're doing? You could've asked me. I would've told you what those verses meant. In any case, if you still need any help, I've got plenty of resources: Calvin's Commentaries, Mathew Henry's Commentaries, TWO bible dictionaries and a pocket concordance. Make sure to check out the ESV (English Standard Version). It's this cool new translation of the Bible by really smart scholars. Yep, it's pretty much authoritative.
Posted by: John Wykoff at October 30, 2006 02:02 PM
Hip Hip Hooray! I'm glad to know that Dunnett didn't set you back considerably. Do you think you could drag it out a little past May so that we can have enough time to come and see you?
Posted by: Vange at October 20, 2006 12:07 AM
Dear Bryonie,
Thanks for the birthday card. Your mom gave me your blog address -interesting to hear what Josh is doing and see some pics of you all and Scotland. Press on being a light there.
Dick Hannula
Posted by: Dick Hannula at October 18, 2006 07:26 PM