I asked this very question myself even before completing my PhD in 2019: what’s it all for? Considering the slumping academic job market, and fierce (read, ridiculous) competition for the few jobs in my discipline each year, I wondered what the point was of nearly a decade of rigorous intellectual forging through two masters degrees and a doctorate in New Testament.
So I was grateful to find recently a superb resource on the very question. Charlie Trimm and Brittany Kim have compiled numerous testimonies from PhD’s now putting their education to use in various fields including the pastorate, administration, editing and publishing, Bible translation, and more.
We’re going to be publishing these testimonials over the coming weeks as a way to encourage you to consider entering the long, hard road of doctoral studies as a means to serve the church, to serve other people, and to serve our Lord.
Perhaps the high aspiration of many a newly minted PhD, i.e. a tenure-track post at a prestigious institution of higher education, is not the only worthwhile, nor actually the best, reason to earn a doctorate.
[Read more…]