![The Gifts of My Vanderbilt PhD]()
One of the enduring advantages of the American/German doctoral model: it provides more time and space for the fertility of intellectual curiosity and discovery. By definition, reading original theological sources takes time. It takes even more time to read original sources that are not naturally in your intellectual ambit. That is one of the chief benefits that two years additional of coursework + a university context + comprehensive exams offers doctoral students in a program like Vanderbilt’s.
I’m under no illusions about the privilege such time and space assumes. My participation in the program would not have been possible without the generosity from institutions like Vanderbilt Graduate School and the Lilly Endowment (and my wife Courtney, who spent years as our family’s primary breadwinner).
But I can also say this: in my judgment, evangelicalism has suffered for too long because it tends to treat intellectual curiosity and diversity as a threat instead of an opportunity for refinement, growth, and testing. In my experience, heeding Peter’s invitation to be “prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have… with gentleness and respect” (1 Pt. 3:15) doesn’t come from self-soothing theological and political silos; it comes from the hard work of constructive engagement, empathetic learning, and creative response.
