[Vision2020] My PhD

[Nicholas Gier]

Dear Visionaries:

Someone asked me about my PhD, and if Mike Lawyer will excuse me once again for talking about my credentials, I would be very happy to reply.

I have a PhD in philosophical theology from Claremont Graduate University, which is the graduate school for the famous Claremont Colleges, six of best liberal arts colleges in the US. Between the faculty of Claremont School of Theology and the six colleges, I had an incredible amount of intellectual stimulation and resources.

My two major professors were John B. Cobb, Jr., one of the greatest liberal Protestant theologians in the world today, and James M. Robinson, one of the top New Testament scholars in the world.  Robinson was given the great honor by UNESCO to translate and edit the Gnostic Gospels, and he has been praised for the open and expeditious way in which he "farmed out" the translations and made the results available to all scholars.  This is contrast to the secret and dishonest way in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were handled.

I was having such a great time in Claremont in the late sixties that I took an extra year of course work in philosophy and theology.  It was some of the best years of my life, but I'm finding retirement very hard to beat!

Nick Gier