In Search of the Ur-Faculty Advisor

Some academics, especially mathematicians, like to play a genealogical game, in which their faculty advisor, usually their Ph.D. advisor, is considered a parent. They then enjoy tracing their intellectual forebears into distant antiquity. I was rather bored today, so I decided to trace my own academic genealogy. On an earlier attempt, I became lost in Scottish surgeons of the 19th century, but the Mathematics Genealogy Project at North Dakota State University opened up a completely different genealogical path in Germany, a country with a stronger tradition (or better records) of faculty advising.

Eight generations back, I encountered Bunsen (of burner fame).

Sixteen generations back, I discovered my academic ancestors were Lutheran apologists, mainly educated at the University of Wittenberg.

Twenty four generations back, I found Nicholas Copernicus, a man whose contributions to modern astronomy are somewhat overestimated but whose work on the revolutions of the planets was the first shot of the Scientific Revolution.

Copernicus's academic ancestors were medieval astronomers at the University of Vienna. So twenty nine generations back, I found the great reforger of the University of Vienna, Henry of Langenstein, who wrote about planetary science in the sense that he argued that the appearance of a comet did not portend any future event.

The funny thing is that Henry of Langenstein (and the Byzantine scholar, Gemistos Pletho) are the oldest scholars listed by the Mathematics Genealogy Project at North Dakota State University. In some sense, they are the ur-faculty advisors of science. Scientific genealogies generally end there.

But did they have advisors? The unadvised advisor is even more unlikely than an unmoved mover. Well, maybe Socrates was the unadvised advisor. But the discontinuity between Plato's Academy and the medieval universities of the West makes it hard to connect Socrates and me, though Pletho indeed could be the link.

So I decided to trace Henry of Langenstein further. In theology, he seems to have been advised by a Cistercian master of some obscurity, but scientifically, it is often claimed he was influenced by Jean Buridan, who taught in the Faculty of Arts at Paris. (You should google "Buridan's ass.")

Buridan probably was most influenced by the instruction of William of Ockham (of Ockham's Razor fame). Considering the influence of the principle of parsimony, Ockham really could be the ur-faculty advisor of natural science. Yet it is claimed by some authors that Ockham may have received instruction from John Duns Scotus, the Postulant's chief philosopher of expertise. And coincidentally, Scottish. The trail then grows cold in the midst of the faculty of the Franciscan studium generale at Oxford.

So after thirty-two generations of graduate students, we have progressed from Scotus to me. Darn, I was hoping for Aquinas.

How To Set Off An Atomic Bomb

In this guide, we will describe how to construct a thermonuclear device capable of blowing the Anglican Communion to kingdom come in an exceptionally catholic and orthodox way.

1. Take a gay man.
2. Ordain him a priest in the Church of England.
3. Make him awesome.
4. Make him celibate and thereby turn his long-term relationship celibate.
5. Wait a while.
6. When civil partnerships become legal, let him and his long-term partner enter one.
7. Consecrate him a bishop.

Warning: This device can be defused by a spineless Archbishop under pressure from Anglican Mainstream and allied groups.

Well, it's happening again. The Holy Spirit has put it in a bunch of minds in the Church of England to make Jeffrey John a bishop, this time of Southwark. We'll see if it the appointment actually is made, but oddly enough, it said that neither Canterbury (+Cantaur) nor York (+Ebor) have made any objection. I may have to take back what I said about the Grace of God not being irresistible.

The significance of John's consecration as Bishop of Southwark would be immense. Being partnered, celibate, and open about his sexual orientation and his sexless life, John literally conforms to the Deuteronomic/Levitical standards of sexual conduct while having a manner of life that confounds conservatives and probably makes some liberals equally uncomfortable. He and his partner (also a priest) model a third way for gay relationships and the Christian faith that is equally modernist and traditional. If he becomes a bishop in the Church of England, the Global South will have to compromise their homophobia or reject the Church of England. Or as is more likely, they could mutter about penal atonement and face alienation from the more catholic Provinces of the Communion. Whatever happens, prayer and a good supply of popcorn will be necessary.