To do a PhD one has to read every book and every published article, and unpublished articles if they are available, written by all Catholic and Protestant authors. It can take up to 5 years or more to successfully complete a PhD because the bulk of the time is in locating, reading, and compiling research notes, mapping out the first draft of the thesis. One has to examine the topic from all the different points of view, do a survey of the literature, making sure that any conclusions have not been made in any other PhD on the same topic, because then the conclusions reached would not be new, and the thesis could be downgraded to a Masters. So, this means that every other PhD thesis on the topic must be read carefully as part of the literature survey to ensure that the premise for the PhD is totally new. This is very difficult for a person doing a PhD in theology, because most ideas have already been raked over in previous ones. Therefore, because the conferring of a PhD by a institution worth anything, is saying that the person is a world expert on the topic, having an intimate knowledge of what every other person has written on it, and has come up with a complete new and justifiable premise that adds valuable knowledge and insight into the theological knowledge of the academic Christian community.
Also, evaluation of a PhD thesis is made by a team of academics who have PhDs in theology themselves and are world experts in their own area of research. Then, their evaluation is submitted to a "sister" institution for moderation by another team of PhD experts to ensure that the first team have done their evaluation correctly.
What this happens in practice in New Zealand, is that a PhD submitted at Otago University in Dunedin, is evaluated, and then sent to Auckland University for moderation. If both university teams agree that this is a thesis that can have a PhD awarded, then the person can have the confidence that their PhD is sound and that they are a recognised world expert in their area of expertise.
There are people who have completed PhDs in Biblical archaeology, for example, who have had to actually travel to the Middle East to visit the ruins for themselves, plus all the museums, and then have their PhD, although studied at Auckland University for example, moderated through a university like Oxford or Cambridge to really make sure that their PhD is world standard.
So, I have the greatest respect for anyone who is doing or has completed a PhD. For me it is like climbing Mount Everest, where it is the tough who start it, and the fittest survive to the end.
Now that I know that my friend is in the process of doing a PhD, I would be very reluctant to dismiss his posts without carefully considering them in the light of Scripture.
