Biblical Teology
- 1. Suject-area board
- 2. Save the dates (seminars)
- 3. Coming soon
- 4. General concept of doctoral examinations
1. Suject-area board
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Petr Sláma, Ph.D., chairman of the board of BIBLICAL THEOLOGY and guarantor of the programme
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ThLic. Jaroslav Brož, Th.D., S.S.L. (Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University, Prague)
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Petr Chalupa, Th.D. (Sts Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology, Palacký University, Olomouc)
2. Save the dates (seminars)
The doctoral seminar in the winter semester of 2026/27 will run in two streams: either
a) the English online seminar Babylon in Judah — Judah in Babylon (it starts already on October 8, 2026, the last session is on December 17, primarily intended for Old Testament students, with course credit contingent upon attendance and a paper submitted to Filip Čapek by the end of February 2027 on a topic agreed with him), or
b) a seminar dedicated to the reading of New Testament texts (primarily intended for New Testament students, led by Dr. David Cielontko). Participation in one of these two seminars is compulsory for all doctoral students in Biblical Theology during the winter semester.
In the summer semester of 2026/27, Old and New Testament students will convene jointly for four sessions, plus a bonus gathering in June. Together, we will read Markus Witte’s The Development of God in the Old Testament (available on Moodle), alongside opportunities to present the progress of your dissertations.
These sessions will take place in Prague on Thursdays from 4:50 PM to 6:30 PM.
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18 February 2027
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11 March 2027
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8 April 2027
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13 May 2027
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17 June 2027
Physical attendance is required for students residing in Central Europe; remote participation via Zoom is available for all other participants.
3. Coming soon
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30 September -- 2 October 2026 the joint seminar of Biblical Theology doctoral students from Bratislava, Vienna and Prague will be held in Vienna (see the programme).
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31 March -- 2 April 2027 the traditional Colloquium Biblicum Pragense 2027 will take place in Prague. Its theme will be world-building practices in the biblical world and their instrumentalisation from antiquity to the present.
4. General concept of doctoral examinations
Partial and State doctoral examination in Old Testament
Both the Partial Exam in the discipline of the Old Testament and the State Doctoral Exam (as defined in § 47, paragraph 4 of Act 111/1998 on Higher Education) are similar in content, differing only in the level of expertise and specialization required.
The exam typically consists of three parts (see below: A - B - C). Prior to taking the exam, at least one semester of participation in a doctoral seminar is usually required (see above, News). No later than one week before the exam date, the doctoral candidate must submit written preparations for part A (working translations of texts, explanatory notes with a summary, list of references) and a list of references for parts B and C.
A. Textual exegesis: Exegesis of two unrelated and genre-different sections of the candidate's choice (approximately 40 verses in total). Requirements comparable to the exegesis for the state final exam at the Master's level (see the Old Testament Department website). Beyond the requirements for the Master's exam, the candidate's overview of the history of research, knowledge of alternative hypotheses, and main variants of interpretive and interpretative approaches are particularly observed and appreciated.
B. Overview of Old Testament theology: Study of one of the comprehensive publications on Old Testament (or "biblical") theology from the post-1990 period; its critical characterization and placement in the context of the current international discourse in the field, placement in trends (critical presentation in context).
C. Individual thematic areas:
1. "Theology" (in the narrower sense; de Deo) of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament - specific features, uniqueness (possibly in contrast to the Christian theological tradition).
2. "Anthropology" of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (idem).
3. "Ecclesiology" of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament - various concepts of "Israel," "people of the Lord," etc., internal differentiation and external demarcation.
4. Adapted individually according to the focus of the research project
5. Adapted individually according to the focus of the research project
The candidate chooses the literature at their own discretion (the choice of literature is part of the evaluated aspects).