I Need Help with Interdisciplinary Studies

I am looking for a Good book that covers Interdisciplinary Methods for Christian Theology.

I have tried to read on this topic but I feel that its over my head, I really don't understand what they are talking about.

I need a resource that gives a more down to earth understanding of interdisciplinary method.

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JT (alabama24)

I have tried to read on this topic

Can you provide context? Links to what you have read?

Lee

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1160768#Comment_1160768

JT I am reading Interdisciplinary Method in Christian Theology By: Dr. Fernando he is a Seventh-day Adventist.

As a Baptist this the first I have heard of Interdisciplinary

theology.https://www.logos.com/product/193764/justice-mercy-and-well-being-interdisciplinary-perspectives I picked this up but not sure it will help.

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

I need a resource that gives a more down to earth understanding of interdisciplinary method.

One resource possibility is The Moody Handbook of Theology, Revised and Expanded

Keep Smiling [:)]

MJ. Smith

This should help in that at least one of the approaches should seem familiar and provide hooks into the interdisciplinary approach Evangelical Theological Method: Five Views (Spectrum Multiview Books) - Verbum

Rosie Perera

Inter = between. "Interdisciplinary studies" simply means studying a topic that crosses the boundaries of different disciplines (different fields) and engaging those multiple disciplines in dialogue with each other. I concentrated in Interdisciplinary Studies in seminary and in addition to the usual Biblical Studies, Theology, History, and Languages courses, I also got to take all kinds of interesting courses that didn't fit into any of the typical seminary categories I took classes on Literature & Theology; Science & Theology, Theology Through the Arts, Christianity & Capitalism, Christian Perspectives on Leisure, etc.

You could think of it like a Venn diagram. If someone wants to write a doctoral dissertation on a topic that lies somewhere in the intersection between theology, philosophy, and science (which my uncle did), and the faculties of Theology, Philosophy, and Science don't want to supervise such a dissertation because it isn't entirely contained within their field (as is the case in the UK where doctoral programs are very specialized), you would say the topic this person is interested in is interdisciplinary. It so happened that my uncle found someone willing to supervise his dissertation but he needed to have input from those in other disciplines as well. It's the engagement of the different fields with each other that makes a study truly interdisciplinary.

My advisor used to joke that the definition of a scholar in interdisciplinary studies is "someone who knows less and less about more and more until they know almost nothing about almost everything."

David Paul

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1160783#Comment_1160783

My advisor used to joke that the definition of a scholar in interdisciplinary studies is "someone who knows less and less about more and more until they know almost nothing about almost everything."

Another way of saying this is the familiar "jack of all trades and master of none". Of course, the flip side is that specialists often know very little about anything outside their specialty. Imagine a fabrication plant that employs thousands of people making all of the particular specialized components of an automobile, but has no one who actually knows how to assemble them into a car. An older and less flashy name for this was "general studies", which I flirted with when I first started college. It's obvious why the terminology changed--"interdisciplinary" has four more syllables than "general", so it must be better!

You may be familiar with this concept on a smaller scale in various forms of biblical criticism. Aside from the obvious theological approach, their is form criticism, literary criticism, sociological criticism, feminist criticism, etc. Interdisciplinary studies allows fun options like using Heisenberg's uncertainty principle to describe the state of a given person's spiritual condition.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1160774#Comment_1160774

And then there are those of us who are taught that interdisciplinary means using techniques from a number of existing fields of study to create a new field of studies. I've known several graduate students who created interdisciplinary programs for themselves that are now recognized disciplines in their own right. Or I could brag that my great-grandfather was editor of the first anthropology as the result of his work with the mound-building Native Americans in Wisconsin/Illinois because he started out as an interdisciplinary independent scholar.

David Thomas

I am looking for a Good book that covers Interdisciplinary Methods for Christian Theology.

It is difficult to recommend a singular book for "interdisciplinary" because it involves multiple disciplines. Having done doctoral work in Christian Discipleship, an illustration may be helpful.

When a person reads (for comprehension and recall) a section of Scripture the Educator will consider learning theory, the Physician will consider the biophysical functions of processing meaning, the theologian will front the spiritual transformation, the linguist will consider language translation and usage, etc. If a reader considers a text primarily human produced literature, he/she will draw different conclusions than one who considers the text a divinely authored text. Interdisciplinary finds the overlap.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1160793#Comment_1160793

my great-grandfather was editor of the first anthropology as the result of his work with the mound-building Native Americans in Wisconsin/Illinois because he started out as an interdisciplinary independent scholar.

Yes. That's a big problem in the 'Biblical' world ... archeologists and anthropologists (not to forget the textualists). One big reason I'm sort of locked on to the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, is that it presents the anthropology in its linguistic setting (I purposely reversed). Yesterday's snippit ... 'He loved his son the best, but they refused to give him the coat' (hints of Joseph's coat, along with Jacob/Esau).

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1160786#Comment_1160786

My advisor used to joke that the definition of a scholar in interdisciplinary studies is "someone who knows less and less about more and more until they know almost nothing about almost everything."

Another way of saying this is the familiar "jack of all trades and master of none". Of course, the flip side is that specialists often know very little about anything outside their specialty.

Oh yes, right. That was the other half of my advisor's quote that I forgot about. He'd say that in contrast, specialist scholars "know more and more about less and less until they know almost everything about almost nothing."

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1160906#Comment_1160906

specialist scholars "know more and more about less and less until they know almost everything about almost nothing."

With the flip side of the first question on their death being "who gets his books with the notes in the margin" (answer: Sorbonne, a very surprising choice) or anger "How dare he die with only 3 of the 8 volume translation completed ... is there anyone who can finish it? No .... annoyance remains 50 years after death. Or when my brother asked if I was going to try to publish one of my master's papers, I could respond "no, I can just send copies to the other two people in the world interested in the top"[:D]

See there are whole worlds of scholarship that one never thinks about.

Sean

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1160772#Comment_1160772

One resource possibility is The Moody Handbook of Theology, Revised and Expanded

Sorry to pick on this but I have to. I don't have the second edition of this book, but the first is riddled with inaccuracies. As a former professor of systematic theology, I can't recommend it to anyone.

Lee

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1160929#Comment_1160929

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone.