The Doctor of Philosophy Program in Biblical and Theological Studies at Wheaton College seeks to advance the cause of Christ by training men and women as evangelical Christian scholars who will serve the church worldwide as teachers, researchers, pastors, and leaders. As part of the global community of scholarship, our aim is to combine faithfulness to the teaching of Scripture with creative and critical reflection on its significance for the church and contemporary culture.

Fully Funded

A full tuition scholarship, as well as a research fellowship, for each of the six students accepted per year will enable each student to devote himself or herself to advanced learning as a fully involved member of the academic community.

Mid-Atlantic Model

Our program is a hybrid involving some standard features of the typical North American doctorate (including required seminars and comprehensive knowledge of the field) and some features of the typical British model (with strong emphasis on the dissertation and the mentor relationship). The course of study is designed to be completed in three years by blending the key features of both models into our own approach.

Mentor Intensive

We work with a model of strong personal and academic relationships between our students and their doctoral mentors (supervisors) from the very start of their program right through their dissertation defense. Additional faculty are available to teach doctoral seminars, serve as resources, and act as secondary readers for dissertations.

Rigorous Scholarship

Our program sets very high academic standards at every point, including admissions qualifications, coursework, and dissertation writing. Our students’ dissertations are expected to make substantial scholarly contributions to research in their field of study.

Integrative Approach

In a world of very super-specialized scholarship, we are intentional about bridging the scholarly gap between the Old and New Testaments, and especially between the disciplines of Biblical Studies and Theology. In today’s academy, these are often treated as separate, autonomous subjects, but our program is designed to hold them together. Our program is decidedly theological. We ask about the shape of “whole Bible theology” and want our students to engage the whole canon of Scripture. Likewise our program explores the scriptural roots of theology and the theological roots of Scripture.

Concurrent

Unlike most doctoral programs in North America that operate with a sequential, step-by-step model, our program is concurrent. Our students work on their dissertation proposals during their first semester, while doing seminars, honing their modern language skills, completing required readings for breadth and depth of knowledge in their field, and engaging in fellowship work (typically supporting research and teaching of a professor).

Communal

We want to foster an ethos of mutual support, cooperation, and learning so that our students will develop constructive and collaborative habits of collegiality as they work together on their degrees.

Globally Minded

This program will expose students to perspectives from other parts of the world through class discussions, the presence of visiting international scholars, and an academic community engaged in global issues.

Doctor of Philosophy Requirements (40-60 hours)

The length and specific components of the program will therefore vary from student to student. All students will be required to take a minimum of 40 hours of doctoral-level courses and may be asked to take as many as 60.

Introduction to Doctoral Research: 1 hour

BITH 751 Orientation to doctoral research in theology and to Wheaton's Ph.D. program in Biblical and Theological Studies. (1)

Four doctoral seminars: 16 hours

BITH 881 Seminar: Theological Interpretation of Scripture (4)
BITH 882 Seminar: Topics in Biblical Theology (4) OR
BITH 883 Seminar: Topics in Historical & Systematic Theology (4)
BITH 882 or 883 Minor Field Seminar (4)

At least one Guided Research course: 2+ hours

BITH 795 Guided Research (supervised independent study) (2-4)

One approved course at another institution: 3-4 hours

Some doctoral students have fulfilled this requirement by taking a summer course at the University of Chicago or University of Notre Dame.

Directed Research in conjunction with a liberal arts class: 0+ hours

BITH 794 Undergraduate Liberal Arts Course (2-4)

Directed Research in conjunction with masters BITH class: 0+ hours

BITH 793 Masters level Biblical and Theological Studies Course (2-4)

Supervised Pedagogical Experience: 2 hours

BITH 798 Students participate with a faculty member in teaching a course.

Colloquia: 3 hours

BITH 752, 753, 754 Designed to track the requirement that students involve themselves in the life of the academic community through seminar-style discussion of papers written by students, chapters of dissertations, works in progress by BTS faculty or guest visitors, or key articles in the field that are worthy of general discussion. (1 each)

Dissertation

The dissertation at Wheaton should be theological in orientation, integrated in scope, and be a substantial contribution to research in the field of study, demonstrating originality, creativity, breadth of research, careful argumentation. Recent Ph.D. alumni have published their dissertations with Brill, Walter de Gruyter, T&T Clark, and Wipf & Stock Publishers.

Research Languages

Students applying to the Doctorate program will be tested on their reading competency in theological German prior to registering for their first semester courses. Proficiency in an appropriate second research language will be tested before students register for their second year of classes.

Residency Requirement

Students will be in residence for 3 academic years and will be expected to maintain full-time status.