Steven S Veach

As part of my Doctor of Theology program at Forge Theological Seminary I am posting this as an update to my progress as I finish Phase I and move on to Phase II.

Overview of Phase I

So I’m basically in my last week of the preliminary work of my ThD program at FTS and should finish up everything, hopefully, by the end of January. This will pave the way for me to make a fresh start on Phase II (the primary research section of the program) at the beginning of February.

Let me outline here what I’ve completed thus far in Phase I:

• Read several preparatory books (Surviving Seminary, Writing a Proposal, From Student to Scholar, etc).
• Completed an unofficial Concept Paper, and then subsequently expanded that document into the official Dissertation Proposal. This was submitted and approved by my Advisor.
• Watched several Dissertation Preparation Presentations online as well as at least three actual Dissertation Presentations uploaded by students.

Need to Still Complete

This next week I plan to finish up all outstanding materials and several write-ups:

• Unwritten Rules of PhD Research
• Turabian Citation Seminar (online video)
• Several Write-ups
• Misguided Idea of “New Research”
• Review on 3 outstanding Books
• Issue of Latency in Graduate Programs
• Review of Dissertations & Preparatory Seminars
• Watch and Review: “How to Turn a Dissertation into a Book”
• Complete a Comprehensive Overview of Dissertation Process
• Article on Isolation in Online Graduate Work

Overview of Phase II

Once I complete all preparatory work next week, I’ll be ready to jump into Phase II starting February 1st. I plan to complete this Phase by the end of March 2021, which will end the main thrust of research and will lead into the dissertation writing itself. In those two months I’m really hoping to finish not only all note extractions from each resource, but also have all note fragments inserted into the comprehensive outline in Scrivener.

The dissertation phase should take April and May with edits done and presentation written and recorded, with the final dissertation document submitted to my Advisor by June 1, 2021. I would also like to complete the preparatory exercise “Defense Preparation Questions” document to prepare for the defense.

Possible Bad News on Future Pursuits

Though not the main objective of my ThD program, I have been planning to seek employment at a particular seminary. This is a unique institution, which would allow me to work part-time, online. It is one of only a few Seminaries I would be interested in seeking employment. Today, looking into their website, I discovered a “sample” course on intersectionality. Now, as a caveat, it does appear as if the Seminary utilizes a third party distributor for all their course materials and lectures. This means it’s possible this sample course is more reflective of the third party provider than the Institution, but I’m skeptical. Regardless, I will not seek employment at a Seminary that affirms such nonsense. I was fortunate enough to find a graduate program at an institution that actually – officially – denounces all this selcular worldview insanity. I’m not going to align myself with a Seminary that teaches and approves such heresy.

So, really the only thing I can do at this point is send an email to the Seminary admin and ask them the question that I’m afraid I already know the answer to. I’ll keep you posted on what their response is.

Other than that, everything seems to be going as outlined. I’m ready (and a little anxious) to jump into the research itself. So far it’s been a pretty great experience.