The world of serious, academic biblical theology—even among confessional evangelicals—is often marked with a certain form of political correctness. So I found it encouraging to read this comment from Dane Ortlund (PhD, Wheaton) about his own dissertation work on the book of Galatians:
I’m hoping my dissertation gets published, for two reasons. One, I’m a self-loving sinner with unmortified infatuation with my own name. Two (more cheerily), my work exposes weaknesses in the theology of James Dunn and I would love to see fewer pastors and teachers buy Dunn’s commentaries in light of my dissertation. I would be happy to help Dunn’s stuff go out of print a bit sooner. Not because he’s 180 degrees wrong on everything. Of course not. But because he’s an influential writer who fuzzies what the gospel is, confusing essence and implication, vertical and horizontal, individual and corporate, the moral and the social.
For those contemplating PhD work, see his post Stupid PhDs vs. Wise PhDs.
