Degrees Offered: Ph.D.; Th.D.

The GTU History Area offers its doctoral students two distinct tracks: History of Christianity and Jewish History and Culture.

1. The history of Christianity track offers programs of study in the following fields: ancient and eastern Christianity, medieval Jewish-Christian relations, medieval Christianity, the Reformations broadly conceived, spirituality, Christian missions and American religious history especially colonial, church and state, religion in the American West and American Catholicism.

2. In the Jewish history and culture track, students can study Hellenistic Jewish and rabbinic literature, medieval Jewish history and thought, and modern Jewish literature and culture. Among the interests of the faculty are literary studies, history of ideas and language, the politics of translation and of cultural exchange. Students may work within the discipline of history as well as literary, religious, or cultural studies.

In both tracks, the department encourages interdisciplinary and comparative research. Students have the opportunity to work closely with professors from both the GTU and UC Berkeley.

Objectives
Students acquire a strong general competence, particularly for teaching the history of Christianity or Judaism, and will have particular strength, both for teaching and scholarly research, in a more narrowly defined specialization and in a second field.

A. Diagnostic Interview
During the student’s first semester in the doctoral program the advisor will appoint a committee of Area faculty members to conduct a diagnostic interview in order to assess the student’s academic strengths and weaknesses. The advisor will write a summary of the committee's findings and make recommendations for a preliminary plan of study to the student. A copy of this summary will be sent to the academic dean's office.

B. Language Requirements
Each student, in consultation with the academic advisor, will prepare a plan for establishing language competency. In the History of Christianity track, the student is expected to show proficiency in two modern languages (other than his or her native language). One of these must be French or German. In the Jewish history and culture track, the student is expected to show proficiency in Hebrew from any period relevant to her/his research as well as one modern language (other than English).

In addition, each student is expected to show proficiency in any other language(s) necessary for the planned concentration. Within the first year of study, each student will prepare a plan for establishing language competency in consultation with the academic advisor. This plan must be approved by the Area faculty.

C. Course Work

During their two years of residence, students are expected to participate in doctoral seminars (5000 and 6000 levels) at the GTU and UCB. All students must take one seminar in Historical Method and at least six other doctoral seminars.

1. In the History of Christianity track, the following four seminars, offered on a two year cycle, are required to demonstrate general competency in:

•                 Early Christianity (to 800)
•                 Medieval Christianity (600-1400)
•                 Early Modern Christianity (1300- 1650)
•                 Modern Christianity (since 1650)

In consultation with the advisor, each student will also select at least two topical seminars such as American Religious History, History of Missions and Missiology, Global Christianity, Orthodoxy, etc.

2. In the Jewish History and Culture track, six doctoral seminars must cover three out of the four following historical periods in Jewish History:

•                 Biblical (First and Second Temple period)
•                 Late Antiquity (Hellenistic period to early Middle Ages)
•                 Medieval and Early Modern
•                 Modern

D. Comprehensive Examinations

The student, in consultation with the academic advisor, submits an exam proposal for approval by the Area.  The proposal includes the members of the comprehensive examination committee, a description of the exams, and bibliographies for the special exam and the research paper.

Before the student begins the comprehensive examination process, the committee will evaluate the student’s command of the recommended material. The student may not proceed with the comprehensive examination process until any serious deficiencies have been remedied.

In addition to a general competence demonstrated by work in seminars, students are expected to acquire competence in a specialization. This is demonstrated by a closed book, three-hour timed examination. As noted above, the bibliography for this exam is drawn up by the student and approved by the comprehensive exam committee and the Area faculty. The exam should be taken no later than the fifth or sixth semester of full-time study.

Each student also elects a second field for which competence is demonstrated by a research paper (approximately 40 pages in length). This paper forms part of the dossier for the comprehensive examination. As noted above, the bibliography for this paper is drawn up by the student and approved by the comprehensive exam committee and the Area faculty.

Depending on the track the student is following, a possible second field might be: a second period of Christian or Jewish history or a topic that involves periods outside one’s specialization (for example, Christian-Jewish relations, church-state relations, ecumenism, education, missions, spirituality, etc.); the history of another religion (Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, etc.); or, another discipline (the sociology of religion, religious anthropology, systematic theology, etc.).

Each student finally undergoes an oral examination by the comprehensive examination committee. This is a discussion of the field of specialization and the paper written for the second field. The oral examination follows the written examination as soon as is practical within the semester that the written exam is taken.

E. Dissertation
After successfully completing the Comprehensive Examinations the student submits a dissertation proposal to the Area faculty and the Doctoral Council for approval. An oral defense is conducted upon completion of the dissertation.

CORE DOCTORAL FACULTY IN HISTORY

DEENA ARANOFF • GTU (Medieval Jewish Studies)
Jewish society and culture in the medieval and early modern European context; rabbinic literature; medieval patterns of Jewish thought; continuity and change in Jewish history.

THOMAS E. BUCKLEY, SJ • JSTB (American Religious History)
American religious history; U.S. Church-State relations; English Reformation; American Catholics and Vatican II; modern Christianity.

JOSEPH P. CHINNICI, OFM • FST (Church History)
History and theology of prayer in American Catholicism, 1945-1975; the history of contemplation in the Catholic community in the United States; popular religiosity: Europe and the United States; American Catholicism.

EUGENE LUDWIG, OFM Cap. • DSPT (History and Patristic Theology)
Cyril of Alexandria; Christian images; history of ancient philosophy; history of Christianity; Patristics.

JAMES A. NOEL • SFTS (American Religion)
American religion; Black Church studies; African diaspora.

CHRISTOPHER OCKER • SFTS (Late Medieval and Reformation History)
Christianity from late antiquity through the Reformation; Cities, Friars, beguines, Jews, and Judaism; biblical interpretation, schools and scholasticism; humanism and theologians; cultural continuities within conflicts; late Medieval and Early Modern Germany.

NAOMI SEIDMAN • GTU (Jewish Culture)
Translation theory and the Bible in translation; secular Jewish Culture; modern Jewish literature.

RANDI WALKER • PSR (American Religious History)
Religion in the North American West; religion, race and public policy; civil religions; global Christianity; women in Christianity and Women in  American Religion.

HOLGER ZELLENTIN • GTU (Rabbinics and Late Antique Judaism)
Rabbinics; Judaism in the Greco-Roman world; heresy and dissent in Judaism and Christianity in late antiquity.

CONSORTIAL FACULTY RESOURCES

MICHAEL B. AUNE • PLTS (Liturgical and Historical Studies)
Liturgy and theology; history of early twentieth century Protestant theology; history of Lutheranism in the United States.

JEFFREY M. BURNS • FST (American Church History)
U.S. Catholic history; social justice; mission and evangelization.

RONALD BURRUS • ABSW (Church History)
Augustine; North African Christianity; the Donatists; Dr. Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement.

MARY ANN DONOVAN, SC • JSTB (Historical Theology and Spirituality)
Early Church; history of spirituality; ecumenism; Elizabeth Seton.

GEORGE E. GRIENER, SJ • JSTB (Historical and Systematic Theology)
18th and 19th century Roman Catholic theology; Karl Rahner’s theology; Christian theology of God; inculturation of theology in Asia.

ARTHUR HOLDER • GTU (Christian Spirituality)
Christian spirituality as academic discipline; Anglo-Saxon spirituality; Benedictine spirituality; Celtic spirituality; medieval Christian exegesis of the Song of Songs.

DANIEL JOSLYN-SIEMIATKOSKI • CDSP (Church History)
History of Jewish-Christian relations; medieval receptions of late antique Christianity; cult of saints; non-supersessionist Christian theologies; comparative theology using historical sources.

MARGARET McMANUS • ABSW (U.S. Religious History)
U.S. Women, religion, and reform.

DARLEEN PRYDS • FST (Christian Spirituality and Medieval History)
History of lay preaching; Christian mysticism; devotional practices.

WILLIAM J. SHORT, OFM • FST (Christian Spirituality)
Franciscan spirituality; Franciscan history; medieval spirituality; sixteenth century Spanish Franciscan mystics.

MARTHA ELLEN STORTZ • PLTS (Historical Theology and Ethics)
Christian practices; ethics and spirituality; Luther’s theology and ethics; vision and morality; power and leadership.

JANE STROHL • PLTS (Reformation History and Theology)
Luther’s theology; Lutheran confessional theology; ecumenism; women’s religious experience (late medieval/Reformation); implications of Reformation studies for contemporary pastoral practice.