Please pardon the rare personal entry, but I just really feel good right now.

This afternoon I officially delivered my prospectus to the SBTS Doctoral Studies Office. I haven't announced it before now, but the title for my dissertation (unless it changes before May 3) is "Preserved Blameless: 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 in Pauline and Jewish Contexts."

What happens now?

Well, next Wednesday, April 26, I will present the prospectus to the NT Colloquium for critique and suggestion. Normally, this is done before submitting the prospectus to the Doctoral Studies Office, but today was the semester deadline for submission, and I switched presentation dates with another student who preferred to present this week. That worked out for me, too, because I don't think I would have been quite ready to distribute copies to colloquium a week ago (they have to be distributed a week in advance).

Then on May 3, the title of my prospectus will go before the entire SBTS faculty for a vote. They don't actually see the entire prospectus, although my supervisor would be present, presumably to answer any content questions that might come up.

Finally, if approved by the faculty, I'll begin writing in May.

But for now, today's a great day!