Featured What Is Scholarship?

I have been in positions of authority over other people. At the age of 4 years old, my childhood ended, and I became the "mommy" of a brain damaged 3 year old and an infant. Back them I was a terrible authority figure, but I was 4 years old. I've gotten better at it over time, but I never expect people to trust me until I earn their trust.

 

My understanding is that the final stage of the Greek education system is argument of a law. Is Christian scholarship the same as Greek scholarship? Should it be?

 

The Progymnasmata
thesis or theme thesis
progymnasmata: thesis or theme
Theme or argument is "a logical examination of a subject under investigation" and could be political or theoretical in nature. It is the first exercise to introduce arguing on two sides of a given question.

Hmmm, so Brigham Young University says that the thesis is the first part of the last step, but then there is still this.
progymnasmata: defend / attack a law
Defend or attack a law is more of a declamation than a progymnasma, more of an hypothesis than a thesis, but borrows from the thesis the attempt to argue two sides of an issue, while applying this to a specific law, real or fictional.

In the video I posted a few days ago, the professor said that a commentary must include conclusions not just information. He is requiring commentaries articles to have a thesis?

Secular scholarship is based on the Greek Progymnasmata? Accreditted Christian colleges must also adhere to this ancient model? Have I been taught something that is incorrect?

 

SBL Handbook of Style has very specific instructions for citing the progmnasmata. I didn't know that.
Progymnasmata

Progymnasmata
16 February 2017 SBLPress Abbreviations8.3.14.3

The term progymnasmata (“preliminary/preparatory exercises”) refers to a series of compositional exercises that taught students in antiquity how to write and deliver declamations (speeches). The exercises educated students in the use of various elements of effective rhetoric, including “μῦθος (*fable), διήγημα (*narrative), χρεία (anecdotal apophthegm), γνώμη (maxim…), ἀνασκευή and κατασκευή (refutation and confirmation), κοινὸς τόπος (commonplace…), ἠθοποιΐα (speech written in character), ἔκφρασις (description…), θέσις (general question), [and] νόμου εἰσφορά (introduction of a law)” (Russell 2003, 1253). Each series contained a set of increasingly difficult exercises that were completed in writing and then read out loud.

There is secondary evidence for progymnasmata from a number of ancient authors, but modern scholars most frequently cite the surviving handbooks of Aelius Theon, Hermogenes, Aphthonius (the Sophist), Nicolaus of Myra (aka Nicolaus the Sophist or Pseudo-Nicolaus), and Libanius.

Although these five authors evidence significant overlap in the exercises included, they also demonstrate that there was no established pattern for the progymnasmatic curriculum. The handbooks do not all contain the same types of exercises, and even when they do, the exercises are frequently presented in a different order (see the table in Kennedy 2003, xiii).

With all that as background, we are ready to discuss how to cite the progymnasmata clearly and accurately.

 

The academic requirements of the classes are the same as those developed for secular colleges? The academic requirements of the classes include research papers, and colleges are denied accreditation if they do not have a library that includes the expected resources? The secular research paper is based on the ancient exercise of arguing about laws?

 

No!

I linked to the translation of a Greek textbook. That is all.

 

I would not expect mention of the progym to be included in the majority of student writing manuals, but I am assuming that it is sometimes included in the books written for the professors teaching writing classes, especially in colleges that teach the classical languages. This textbook is sometimes used in Law school composition classes, and is one that I have used.
https://www.amazon.com/Composition-Classical-Tradition-Frank-DAngelo/dp/0023271418

I think the progymnasmata is mentioned in my 8 vol IVP dictionary set, but I will have to check to be sure. I know I have read about it in resources about Paul's letters.

It has been years since I read Climbing Parnassus, but I think it discusses the history of scholarship and how it influences what is taught today. https://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Parnassus-Apologia-Greek-Latin/dp/1933859504

Thank you for clarifying what is in the SBL and what is not. I do not own the handbook.

 

It's LGBTQ, etc., [snip] AFAIK, they haven't revealed what the alternative TQ part stands for yet.

 

good point, as while authorities in their respective fields of study, not perfect, but at least do scholarly work, quite unlike much of what passes as such today in say Charismatic theology!