Having read through many masters and doctoral level theses, one of the things that stands out about some recent ones, is that the writer doesn’t appear to know what a thesis is, and what it is supposed to do. So let’s back up and look at the definition of the word and its origins. As Wiki reminds us, “The term thesis comes from the Greek word θέσις, meaning “something put forth”, and refers to an intellectual proposition. Dissertation comes from the Latin dissertātiō, meaning “discussion”. Aristotle was the first philosopher to define the term thesis, and you will likely be surprised with what he says: “A ‘thesis’ is a supposition of some eminent philosopher that conflicts with the general opinion … for to take notice when any ordinary person expresses views contrary to men’s usual opinions would be silly.” In other words, a thesis is a discourse that sets out to dispute some generally accepted notion and prove it to be wrong. For example, if there was a culture which assumed ‘water boils at 32 degrees Fahrenheit’ various experiments could show that this theory is not true, and a good thesis, seeking to disprove this common assumption would martial the evidence to make the case. But there are of course other definitions of ‘thesis’.
Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary offers the following: “a dissertation embodying results of original research and especially substantiating a specific view” and slightly different they offer this “a position or proposition that a person (such as a candidate for scholastic honors) advances and offers to maintain by argument”. Either way, the point is a thesis is an idea or proposition that one advances and then seeks to martial evidence to support the validity of thesis. A thesis or dissertation then is not simply a compiling of lots of interesting research on some subject. When I was a doctoral student at the University of Durham in England, there was a young lady, named Ellen also from America, who was doing a masters thesis in classics, having to do with Roman coins. Her research was really interesting, but she apparently didn’t understand that she was supposed to argue a case for some specific interpretation of what the research indicated— for example “after the time of Diocletian, emperor coins ceased to be circulated to all the provinces of the Emperor, and in particular were not transported by boat to Britain’. Sadly, after all that research and quite good writing, she was not awarded a degree, Likewise, I realized I had to maintain a specific proposition about women in the Gospels and Acts when I did my dissertation on that subject.
Now of course, there are other uses of the term thesis, for example in philosophy you are likely familiar with the famous triad— ‘thesis, antithesis, synthesis.’
Unfortunately, one of the things that has happened with theses in North America, is the very definition of the term has been reduced or boiled down to something like this— ” a long essay or dissertation, involving personal research written by a candidate for a degree”. Notice that there is nothing in this definition about proving or disputing anything, nothing about making a valid case for something, Apparently if one accepts this definition, one is not even expected to make a contribution to our knowledge in some field, not expected to do original research even.
Of course I have often told my students a contribution to the field of NT studies does not have to involve some previously untried idea or theory (example– St. Paul was actually a woman), it doesn’t have to involve something entirely new. The real issue is does this research make a contribution to the field of NT studies and help advance our understanding. In other words, not so much is it new, but is it true, and advances our understanding. Especially with a subject like the Bible, when millions of dissertations or theses have been written over the last almost 2,000 years, it would be hard to come up with something completely novel that no one had thought of before.
Having said all this, I think that the definition listed above by Merriam-Webster is the one that is most helpful, and the one I would ask my doctoral students abide by, with the modifications I mention above. It is not enough to do good research. One also has to make a contribution to a particular field of knowledge, and one needs to argue the pros and cons of the case you are making, martialing your evidence to make your thesis seem plausible, or even convincing.
English (US) · 