Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Interdiscipinary Degree

I started a second Master's degree while I was in the middle of a first. I chose, in the second degree, to critique what they were teaching me in the first. The subject was leadership theory -- specifically transformational leadership theory -- as the Americans use the word. I weighed up the relative merits of theological, statistical, and linguistic critiques -- and proposed a linguistic critique. But the faculty of the South African Theological Seminary rejected my proposal -- it was a postmodern approach. My supervisor Dr. Vincent Atterbury said no, keep going, they'll see the merits of this when you have something to show. And so they did. My thesis got "in through the out door" as it were, and the interdisciplinary work -- systematic theology / linguistics -- was, I think, one of the best things I ever did. Google "theology linguistics" today, and my name should be near the top. OBSERVATION: I felt that the leadership theory in question was above all ideological, and that therefore both theological and statistical approaches would fail where it really mattered. It was Prof. John de Gruchy, over coffee, who first planted the idea that I could take an interdisciplinary approach. I would recommend it.

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