Some student perspectives

Will Kynes (2007-8): The title of my dissertation is "My Psalm Has Turned into Weeping: The Dialogical Use of the Psalms in the Book of Job." I am researching the hermeneutical and historical implications of allusions to the Psalms in the dialogue section of Job. I began to develop this idea during the Psalms seminar I attended as part of my M.Litt. In my M.Litt. dissertation, "The Limits of 'Wisdom': The Song of Songs, Job, and 'Wisdom Literature'," I laid a foundation for reading Job and the Psalms together by displaying the circular nature of the arguments for Job as "Wisdom Literature," when, in fact, it has strong resonances with other books in the Hebrew Bible, the Psalms being prominent among them. Thanks to the M.Litt. I was able to hit the ground running with a clear research topic in mind and a general understanding of the relevant research in that area when I began my PhD.

Jarred Mercer (2009-10): Studying at St Andrews for the MLitt in Theological Interpretation of Scripture has been instrumental not only in affording me certain skills or tools for research or in my gaining of specific knowledge, but in the overall, continuing development of my academic and spiritual life. The academic culture of St Mary's College is an environment which desires to dissolve strict demarcations of biblical and theological studies, and this MLitt and the Institute of Bible, Theology and Hermeneutics are a clear representation of that aspiration carried out in working form. With a faculty and programme of study devoted to developing scholars who approach the disciplines of biblical and theological studies as one fluid motion I have not simply been given certain tools to accomplish further academic work but have been set on a trajectory to be formed into a certain type of scholar toward a lifetime of work that seeks to benefit the academy, church and society at large.