The Strength of Duke's Graduate Program in Religion

Over on Duke Newt, Nathan Eubank draws attention to an article in First Things by Rusty Reno.  Its title is Schools of Thought and it offers reflections on the best places for graduate students to study Theology.  It is gratifying to see Duke once again placed at the top (along with Notre Dame) but it is disappointing to see similar errors once again being perpetuated about the program (see Duke the best place to study theology and First Things article rates Duke at the top for previous attempts to set the record straight).  Reno writes:

The main problem with Duke is, well, Duke. The Ph.D. program is run through the university’s department of religion, not the divinity school, and this has tended to restrict artificially the number of students admitted.

As I pointed out last time, this is incorrect. The PhD program is actually run by the Graduate Program in Religion, and not by the Religion Department. The Graduate Program in Religion is a collaborative venture involving both the Department of Religion and the Divinity School.  To illustrate the point, I might add that the current director, Grant Wacker, is housed in the Divinity School, and there are more Divinity School faculty in the program than there are Religion Department faculty.

The limited number of admissions to the PhD program is indeed disappointing, but this has nothing to do with the Religion Department but is related, rather, to the kind of pressures that are felt nationally (and internationally) at present, pressures shared by other great strong institutions and programs.  Nevertheless, one of the results of the highly competitive nature of the program is that it continues to produce the strongest students around.  A Duke PhD in Religion is a Rolls-Royce qualification.

As a member of the here maligned Religion Department, as well as of the Graduate Program in Religion, I would like to add that the collaboration between the Divinity School and us is one of the things that makes the program so strong.  It is not just that colleagues from the different entities get to work together, something that I value hugely, but it is also that the students get the best kind of experience because they are studying and working across the boundaries.   PhD students in the Graduate Program in Religion will often teach or teaching-assist in the Department of Religion, thereby gaining valuable experience in working with university undergraduates in the Arts and Sciences.  The same people also get the chance to teach and precept in the Divinity School, so working with students who are training for the ministry.

Nathan Eubank, "A Disconcerting Prayer"

The best thing about Duke is the quality of its students.  Nathan Eubank, from our Graduate Program in Religion, has an article in the latest JBL,

A Disconcerting Prayer: On the Originality of Luke 23:34a, JBL 129/3 (2010): 521–536
Nathan Eubank

The online access is only available for SBL subscribers and for institutions with subscriptions to the JBL.

Interview with Richard Hays on Hesed we 'emet

Stephen Carlson has already mentioned this (also on Duke Newt), but John Anderson has a fascinating interview with my colleague here at Duke, Richard Hays, over on Hesed we' emet. It is detailed and full of interest.

First Things Article Rates Duke at the top

Over on Duke NewT, Nathan Eubank comments on an article by R. R. Reno on First Things, A 2009 Ranking of Graduate Programs in Theology. Duke just comes out on top, as it did last time Reno did some similar ranking. The ranking is geared towards Theology, and Reno appears to be exclusively interested in the Divinity School, but nevertheless it is nice to hear the endorsement. On the previous occasion, I corrected some of the misconceptions about the structure of the program here. This time there is a different but related misconception,

In the past, the main problem with Duke was institutional. The PhD program is run through the Duke University department of religion, and only a couple of students a year were admitted to study theology.

The PhD program is actually run by the Graduate Program in Religion, a collaborative venture involving both the Department of Religion and the Divinity School. It is true that only one or two students are admitted to the theology track each year, but there are eight or so students admitted to the program as a whole.

Duke Newt blog

The PhD students in New Testament at Duke (a bright bunch, to be sure) are gathering together to contribute to a new blog called Duke Newt:

Duke Newt

A Forum for Students and Others Associated with Duke's PhD in New Testament to Share their views