Wheaton College
Description of PhD Program
The Doctor of Philosophy in Biblical and Theological Studies is designed to train evangelical Protestant scholars who can serve the church worldwide as teachers, researchers, pastors, and leaders. The program aims at fostering faithfulness to the teaching of Scripture in combination with creative and critical reflection on its significance for the church and contemporary culture. Students may focus on either Biblical Theology or Systematic/Historical Theology. The nature of Scripture and of the theological task demands that theology be rooted in Scripture and that Scripture be interpreted theologically. The Wheaton Ph.D. program, therefore requires that its students take a holistic approach to biblical-theological studies. Students will write dissertations that focus on one of the traditional areas of academic competence—Old Testament, New Testament, Systematic Theology, or Historical Theology—the student’s “concentration.” But the entire program requires integration between the fields of biblical studies and theology. In order to facilitate this integration, students in the Wheaton Ph.D. program will write dissertations that are distinctly theological in nature.
The program incorporates the best elements from North American, British, and German doctoral models. Emphasis will be placed on guided research and independent study, though some formal courses are required. Informal learning in a community setting is integral to the program. Students will work closely with a faculty mentor, who will have primary responsibility for establishing the specific shape of the program that the student will undertake. Students are expected to engage in dissertation research and writing from the beginning of the program. The length and specific components of the program will therefore vary from student to student.
Tuition & Housing
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 themselves to advanced learning as a fully involved member of the academic community.
Housing options vary form single room at $3450 to Family house at $8100 per semester.
Financial Aid Fellowships
PhD Scholarship and Research Fellowship which awards full tuition and a $10,500/year Teaching Assistant stipend.
Hispanic/Latine Faculty
Dr. M. Daniel Carroll R. (Rodas) is one of the PhD faculty
Blanchard Professor of Old Testament
Other faculty in the biblical and theological studies department:
Dr. Gene Green
Professor of New Testament (spent many years in Central America before joining the faculty, fluent in Spanish)
Dr. Carlos Sosa
Visiting Assistant Professor of New Testament
Hispanic Centers & Programs
Unidad Cristiana exists as a community that empowers all students of Latino backgrounds to explore, develop, and express their ethnic identity in Christ. We also aim to create awareness and appreciation for the diversity of Latino cultures in the larger Wheaton Community.
Library Resources & Special Collections
The Buswell Library is a teaching library whose mission is to build physical and virtual academic resources, foster skilled and confident users of these resources, and promote community on the Wheaton campus.
The library is the shared center of intellectual inquiry and discovery for Wheaton College. It nurtures partnerships that augment Wheaton’s resources, teaching mission, and the community of which it is a part. The library seeks to thoroughly integrate Wheaton’s teaching into the curriculum through active involvement in curricular development, partnerships with faculty and academic departments, awareness and promotion of emerging trends and resources, and direct engagement with students both within and outside of the classroom. It promotes community by sponsoring and participating in campus-wide activities and encouraging the creative use of the library’s physical and virtual spaces.
Buswell owns approximately 400,000 printed books and adds about 7,000 new books every year. In recent years, it has begun to provide books electronically and currently has about 155,000 books in this format. The library provides access to thousands of academic journals via internet and hundreds in hard copy within the library. A robust inter-library loan system is connected to I-Share (made up of over 80 institutions in the state of Illinois) and ILLiad (consisting of thousands of libraries worldwide).
The library archives houses the collections of a number of significant evangelical leaders and associations and organizations. In addition, the Marion E. Wade Center, which has its own building, is a major research collection of materials by and about seven British authors: Owen Barfield, G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Dorothy L. Sayers, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams.
Other Resources
HTI Scholars
Contact Information
The HTI person to contact for information on PhD studies at Wheaton College is:
Name: Dr. M. Daniel Carroll R. (Rodas)
Title: Blanchard Professor of Old Testament
Phone: (630) 752-5155
Email: danny.carroll@wheaton.edu
The person in charge of enrollment is:
Name: Dr. Daniel Treier
Title: Director PhD Program
Phone: (630) 752-5419
Email: daniel.treier@wheaton.edu