A step in the wrong direction?
By: Graham Doel, February 5th, 2008At my last supervision two significant questions were raised:
- Does the question you are asking reflect the contents of your proposal?
- In the historical area of your study, will their be enough reflection by the church planters to give you enough to go on?
There were other questions, but these two are the ones that have set the direction for my Study leave. Richard and Stuart set me a deadline of March 13 to come up with some answers. If there is not enough primary material then I will have to refocus my proposal in time for my progress review with the university.
Stuart gave me most opportunity for reflection when he suggested that the question I am asking is “fundamentally uninteresting”. I must admit his words caught me off guard, because having spent nearly a year framing my question, I am very interested in it! Having re-visited my proposal, the question I have used to is:
How might revisiting the Church planting characteristics and techniques of the New Connexion of General Baptists (1770-1891) inform and challenge the reality of Church planting within the Baptist Union of Great Britain (1988-2008).
Unfortunately that question does not reflect what is in the proposal. I wrote the question and then wrote the proposal and didn’t go back and check that the two agreed with each other. It would be better to ask:
What were the philosophical, social, political and theological themes that influenced the Church planting characteristics and techniques of the New Connexion of General Baptists (1770-1891), and how might they inform and challenge the reality of Church planting within the Baptist Union of Great Britain (1988-2008).
That question better reflects what is in the proposal and provides a more interesting basis for discussion. Unfortunately I began to look at the history of the New Connexion of General Baptists with the question that headed my proposal in mind, not the substance of the proposal. Which means that the work that I have done so far needs totally re-working. But that’s not the end of the world!
The second question is a little more difficult to answer. The most significant histories on the New Connexion of General Baptists are ancient and not particularly analytical (with the exception of Frank Rinaldi’s thesis which is due for publication later this year). They tend to concentrate on description of the events and are interested only in where the New Connexion sit in the theological framework of their time. What I need to know s what the people who were starting the churches thought about how they were responding to the philosophical, political, social and theological themes of their day. The only way I am going to find that out is if they have written something about it. My trips to the archives should help me do that.
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February 7th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I know the feeling! It’s only taken me 6 years to get a question that my (now) supervisor can agree on. A long slog, granted, but it is making the research much more enjoyable AND it means I get to stand up for myself a bit more! I think the DPT route is better in this respect as you basically spend three years playing around before you hone your question/proposal
February 11th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Two doth not a deluge make, Graham
February 11th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Indeed it doesn’t…. that’s because there’s not much to write. Today I am ploughing through some of the letters I copied while I was away. I will probably post my summaries of them.