Dissertation Completed—Sort Of!

by Jan 11, 2011Dissertation, Personal7 comments

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I have reached the end of the dissertation, but I’m 3,395 words over my absolute top word limit and I have some editing to do anyway. I hope to accomplish that today.

I praise the Lord for in-laws who let me work in their basement for two weeks (they got time with their one grandchild out of it!) and for a wife who supported me.

I also praise the Lord for the opportunity to study His special and general revelation.

On the special revelation side, I was really deeply struck with how much Paul loved other Christians, perhaps especially his own converts. I was also struck by how consistently he looked for faith and love (and a little less often hope) as evidences of grace in Christian congregations. That’s the rubric I’ll use from now on.

On the general revelation side, I can say I do love language. Relevance theory, lexical pragmatics—so fun! And I do think I have something original to say about ἀγάπη because of my forays into those fields. But we’ll see what the committee thinks! If you’re a friend, pray that the Lord would give me good success throughout the rest of the dissertation process. Here’s how it will go:

  • Jan 15—I turn in a rough draft.
  • Feb 15—I turn in a final (defense) draft.
  • Mar 15—I defend the dissertation before my four committee members (date approximate).

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7 Comments
  1. Andy Naselli

    Congrats, Mark!

  2. Dustin B.

    Have been and will continue to pray for you, Mark.

  3. Joy Collins

    Hurray! Brian is right there with you. We continue to pray for you.

  4. Laura

    Congratulations, Mark!

  5. Brian Collins

    I just finished writing also. Now for the editing.

  6. Dennis

    Way to go, Mark. I knew you could do it! Will pray for the rest of the process.
    DC

  7. Jayson Byrd

    Congrats, Mark! That’s quite the milestone.