Scripture and Theology
That Scripture has theological points to make at every turn might seem obvious to many. However in the scholarly world the investigation of biblical texts can easily begin and end with consideration of social, political, cultural and religious context. It is not to oppose or correct any such method, but to become newly aware of Scripture’s rich theological intentionality, both in terms of the scriptural ‘big picture’ and at the ‘close-up’ focus that exegesis involves. This has become a growth area in recent research of late, and a number of faculty at St Andrews are active in the field. It requires some willingness to look across the divides between a number of theological sub-disciplines: biblical exegesis, hermeneutics, the history of interpretation and dogmatics.
The one-year MLitt in Scripture and Theology will help students orientate themselves to recent research and the history of biblical interpretation, obtain necessary skills in methods and relevant research languages and begin to do their own research through a short dissertation. It will offer an excellent preparation for a doctoral dissertation in any one of the sub-disciplines, or in something that aims to combine at least two of these.
There are two core modules, each worth 40 credits. In the first semester students will study ‘Origins of Christian Theology’ which will look at how, in historical terms Christian doctrine grew out of the bible in the era of the Early Church. The second half of the semester will be devoted to an overview of the history of biblical interpretation and hermeneutics. In the second semester students will study 'Themes from biblical texts' which will take a theme and trace it across a select number of biblical books interacting with critical scholarship as well as relevant theological issues.
There are a number of choices for a further 40 taught credits, including learning a relevant research language. Possible choices will include: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, French and German.
The remaining 60 credits are made up by a 15,000 dissertation. The research for this dissertation will be supervised by a faculty member and will allow students to do their own research in an area where they wish to do further work.
Staff teaching on this programme include: Dr Scott Hafeman (acting programme coordinator), Dr Mark Elliott (programme coordinator); Prof. Ivor Davidson; Prof. Kristin de Troyer; Prof. Tom Wright; Dr Grant Macaskill; Dr Bill Tooman.
Further details and informal enquiries: email Dr Scott Hafemann [sjh23@st-andrews.ac.uk]