I finally picked a thesis topic. It is harder than one might think. You have to think of a relevant topic where you think you can say something new. In the field of New Testament / Early Christianities, that is pretty difficult to find.

After much hand-wringing, I have decided to do a socio-historical analysis of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Most of the studies of the document have been thematic, or narrative criticism, trying to get at the theological points the author wanted to convey. I’ll try to take this a step further and look at the social and historical location of both the author and the community he wrote to in the Gospel of Thomas. Specifically, I’ll look at connections and departures from a the Lucan community and the connection to the second Zeno school.

Anyway, I fell a million times better having a concrete direction to go in.