The Erastian Way
The Aquinas Student of the Month is chosen by a committee of faculty overseen by the director of Academic Operations and is given out in September, October, November, February, March and April. The award is based upon a student's academic record, research and leadership during the previous month at Aquinas College. Winners receive either a $50 bookstore or food service gift card.
Provost Chad Gunnoe, Ph.D., a member of the History department, recently published a substantial study on early modern German history. The book, which is the result of some 20 years of research, tracks the career of Swiss physician and theologian Thomas Erastus (1524-1583) at the University of Heidelberg. “Erastus holds an important place in intellectual history for his contributions to the debate on witchcraft, his engagement with the radical medical philosophy of Paracelsus, and his role in the religious renewal of the Palatinate, a small principality in Western Germany ruled by one of the leading princes of the Holy Roman Empire,” Gunnoe said. Erastus worked to push the territory toward Reformed Protestantism in the 1560s and helped author the Heidelberg Catechism, a central confessional document in the Reformed tradition. His ideas had a major impact on British history in the 1600s, when an “Erastian” party arose as the Puritans attempted to establish a Presbyterian state church. “This is not the sort of book that will become a New York Times bestseller, but is largely written for other scholars,” Gunnoe said. The project involved a bit of detective work. Gunnoe drew upon original letters and printed sources, largely in Latin and German, from more than 20 libraries and archives in the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland. He eventually created a database of more than 500 predominately handwritten letters. Many were not dated, and he used their contents to date them. “On a couple of occasions, I was able to date letters by Erastus’s reference to contemporary celestial phenomena–a comet and a supernova,” Gunnoe added. “There is no central location for Erastus’s literary remains, so I had to come up with lists of people Erastus knew, find out where they lived and worked, and who might have records they left behind,” he said. “Sometimes, the archives themselves had been moved multiple times from the 1500s to the present, and some of the material which had existed into the 20th century did not survive World War Two or had been scattered into unknown East Bloc libraries or archives after the war.” Gunnoe has been researching Erastus since the early 1990s, when he was awarded a fellowship at the University of Heidelberg. His new book was released by Brill, a publishing house in the Netherlands. “This will be the first time the full spectrum of this important intellectual’s career will be surveyed in any language. It is very satisfying to know you have made a fundamental contribution to scholarship that will be used for decades to come to reconstruct the history of Germany,” Gunnoe said.
September 2010: Senior Christy Armock
Christy is maintaining a 3.95 overall GPA while majoring in English and Spanish and being very involved in campus life. Christy works in the Registrar and Advising Center, where she has been described as dependable and indispensible. She serves on the front line, helping everyone who comes into and works in the office. Her duties include fielding phone calls with knowledgeable finesse, preparing for STAR sessions, updating student records, verifying degrees, and many other major projects.
October 2010: Junior Lisa Hinkel
Majoring in Community Leadership, Lisa is a continuing education student returning to college after having two children. She has maintained a 4.0 GPA since returning to her studies at Aquinas. When not in class or raising a family, Lisa is a Grand Rapids Public School board member and a volunteer with Kids’ Food Basket. With her diligence and spirit of service to the community, Lisa is a great credit to Aquinas College.
November 2010: Senior Nate Poirier
Nate, a four-year member of the Aquinas cross country team, is a true student-athlete, maintaining a 3.6 cumulative GPA while dual majoring in Math and Physics. He recently was commended for his presentation at the Michigan Undergraduate Math Conference. Additionally, Nate submitted a paper titled “The Hyperbolic Version of Alhazen’s Billiard Problem” to Involve. Nate also gives back to the community, serving as tutor for the Math Department every Thursday night.
aquinas.edu | Spring 2011 | Faculty News 21
Faculty News
Students of the Month