Dr. J. Jeffery Tyler of the Hope College religion faculty has received an award through the Fulbright Senior Scholar Program for his study of exile in southern Germany from 1400 to 1700.
The award will support Tyler as he explores how
the practice of banishment and exile defined and shaped
German society from the later Middle Ages through the
Protestant Reformation, studying how, why and who city
magistrates drove from their cities. He is one of
approximately only 40 scholars and teachers nationwide
receiving Fulbrights to Germany for the 1999-2000 academic
year.
"I intend to develop a description of south German
civil society, which takes into consideration legal,
political and religious dimensions," he said. "The practice
of exclusion not only identifies those who are marginalized,
but also exposes the policies and values of the ruling
class; a decree of exile or banishment defines the beliefs
and behaviors deemed acceptable, the peoples and practices
embraced and tolerated."
It is the second year in a row that a member of
the Hope faculty has received a Fulbright award for study in
Germany. Dr. John Lunn, who is the Robert W. Haack
Professor of Economics at Hope, is spending the current,
spring semester at the University of Goettingen through the
program.
Tyler will focus on the cities of Nuremberg and
Augsburg, where he will conduct research during a spring,
2000, sabbatical leave from Hope. He will examine archival
collections that include court cases, legal briefs and civic
registers that offer detail about those summoned before the
court, the charges brought against them and the final
verdict.
Tyler's interest in the topic of exile and
banishment in the Germany of the era is on-going. Earlier
this year, his book "Lord of the Sacred City: The Episcopus
Exclusus in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany" was
published by Brill of the Netherlands as part of the series
"Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought." The book
explores the way in which Catholic bishops were banished,
particularly from the cities of Constance and Augsburg, as
community and church came into conflict while defining their
political roles.
In addition to the Fulbright award, his current
project is also being supported through the college's
"Towsley Research Scholars Program." Tyler was named the
college's second "Towsley Research Scholar" in January of
1998; the Towsley award is providing support for four years.
Tyler was a "Fulbright Fellow" in Germany during
the 1991-92 school year, while pursuing his doctorate at the
University of Arizona. "Lord of the Sacred City" is based
on his 1991-92 research, and he hopes to produce additional
scholarly articles and a text through his current research
as well.
Tyler, a member of the Hope faculty since 1995,
graduated from Hope in 1982 with majors in religion and
ancient civilization. He earned a master of divinity from
Western Theological Seminary in 1986, and his Ph.D. in
history from the University of Arizona in 1995 under the
direction of Heiko A. Oberman.
The Fulbright Program awards grants to American
students, teachers and scholars to study, teach, lecture and
conduct research abroad, and to foreign nationals to engage
in similar activities in the United States. The program was
established in 1946 under Congressional legislation
introduced by former Senator William J. Fulbright of
Arkansas.
Each year, the American Scholar Program sends
nearly 700 scholars and professionals to more than 100
countries. The scholars represent a wide variety of
academic and professional fields, ranging from journalism
and urban planning, to music, philosophy and zoology.