A Look Behind the Curtain, or: why I was silent on the blog for several weeks

So, as I have already mentioned, I recently wrapped up my "Rigorosum", the final examinations for a doctoral degree here at the Protestant Theological Faculty, and I thought I should write a bit about how it all went down. I am usually big about recommending graduate study in Germany, because, hey, I paid a whole 42€ in fees (not including printing the dissertation) for the whole degree, and because I think the academic climate here is at least comparable to leading schools elsewhere (LMU is in the top 50 worldwide, by the way, and the humanities such as theology rank higher).

So I had officially submitted my disseration at the beginning of April, which was officially accepted without revision on the 19th of June. Unlike other programs, the faculty here requires an "Examen Rigorosum" rather than a defense - this consists of one major and two minor subject areas. As my dissertation was written in Systematic Theology, that was my major; for the minor subjects I had to choose from two constellations: Old Testament or New Testament, and Practical Theology or Church History or Science of Religion. I went with NT and Church History. I was also officially informed on the 20th that the examination would be on the 26th, though I knew the date about a week before that unofficially. Preparation was brutal, mostly because I over-prepared, but I certainly won't be lacking the knoweldge later should I ever need it.

In the examination for Systematic Theology, I was examined on the topics of Christology and Justification (Prolegomena wasn't an option, as that was the area of my dissertation - the idea is to ensure a breadth of knowledge and prevent over-specialization) by my advisor, Prof. Jan Rohls. Prof. Harry Oelke examined me in Church History, on the topics of the social, political, and eccelsial situation prior to Reformation as well as on the life and work of the Pietist Philipp Jakob Spener. Prof. Loren Stuckenbruck examined me in New Testament on the righteousness of God in Paul's letter to the Romans. The whole thing took about three hours, and was actually quite a lot of fun (but, then, I'm strange and enjoy these things). I'm also quite pleased to say that I know my overall grades: I received the (latin) grade of cum laude (A side note here: this is not comparable with other grading schemes in other countries, nor is it totally standardized in Germany, not even in the same subject or the same university - each faculty of each uni has its own rules, and there is only a rough guide for the country-wide assesment. For the curious, it's about a 3.5 on an American-style scale).

In my opinion, this sort of examination is the perfect balancing mechanism for the fact that there is not a course of study in the program. One "merely" has to write a dissertation (I've heard the rumor that our give up + nonacceptance rate is 80-90% here, but I don't know if that's true), but there also has to be a concentrated period of broad theological learning, not just specific research. Lectures and seminars here are rarely (for now) divided by standing (aside from proseminars), so it's not uncommon to have doctoral candidates, folks in the early semesters, senior-students, and even professors from other departments in the same course.

And I still can't call myself "Dr." until I turn in a certain number of copies of my dissertation - when the secretary comes back from vacation...

I'm a wizard!

So I have just wrapped up the last bit I have to do for my doctoral degree here in Munich (side note: I can't call myself "Dr." officially until I get the diploma, for legal reasons in Germany, so this is not to be understood as such), and in honor of that I offer the following argument that I am a wizard:

The -ard suffix in English is an old holdover which turns an an adjective into a noun (example: drunk -> drunkard). A wiz-ard, then, is someone who is wise (*wiseard). Now, it's long been a claim of Christianity that theology isn't just a scientia, but a sapientia: not just knowledge, but wisdom. Now, achieving the requirements of a doctoral degree in "wisdom" seems to make one qualified as "wise" - one is doctus (learned) in wisdom, which is basically saying the same thing. That being the case, I lay claim to being a wizard. Bam!

(The only spell I seem to know is "transmute money to book", though)