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Submission Requirements and Formatting Guidelines

Submission Requirements:

  • Word count between 5,000–8,000 (approx. 20–35 pages), discounting citations
  • Written in English in 12-point font, Times New Roman, double-spaced, 1-inch margins
  • Chicago Manual of Style, 18th ed., with footnotes (no in-text citations) and a bibliography page
  • Any use of generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT) is strictly prohibited.
  • Authors must be enrolled at a graduate-level institution at the time of submission. (Note: This is not limited to divinity schools/seminaries.)
  • Submitted papers must not be under review by another journal at the time of submission.
  • Authors are allowed to submit a maximum of 2 papers per cycle.

Failure to meet any of these requirements will result in a desk rejection. No exceptions.

Formatting Guidelines:

  • Citing the place of publication is no longer required for the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style.
  • For footnotes, use 10-pt. Times New Roman font with single spacing.
  • Block quotes (5+ lines) should be indented from the left margin and have single spacing and no quotation marks. There should also be a single space both before and after the block quote.
  • The paragraph immediately following a block quote should not be indented.
  • Extended/block quotes of non-English sources should be placed in footnotes, rather than alongside the translated text.
  • Titles of sections should be bolded, left-aligned, and in 12-pt. font, with no numbering or underlining. A subsection nested within a larger section should be italicized rather than bolded.
  • The first paragraph of each section (if the paper is divided) should not be indented.
  • Em dashes (—) are used for emphasis or to insert explanatory information, with no space on either side of the punctuation mark.
  • En dashes (–) are used for spans of time, dates, or page numbers.
  • Citations of scriptural verses should be abbreviated.

Important Note: These are not submission requirements and thus will not result in a desk rejection. However, if present, they should be corrected before submitting, as they will be asked to be fixed later if the paper proceeds on to further review.