Michael D. Aeschliman | |
|---|---|
 Aeschliman in 2016 | |
| Born | February 21, 1948 |
| Nationality | American, Swiss |
| Occupation(s) | Educator, literary critic, scholar and philosopher |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | |
| Notable works | The Restoration of Man: C. S. Lewis and the Continuing Case against Scientism (2019) |
Michael D. Aeschliman (born 21 February 1948) is a U.S.–Swiss educator, literary critic and scholar, Professor Emeritus at Boston University,[1][2] Professor of Anglophone Culture at the Università della Svizzera italiana (University of Italian Switzerland)[3] and Curriculum Advisor to The American School in Switzerland (TASIS) Foundation Board.[4]
Aeschliman is one of the four sons of the Swiss-American Protestant minister, linguist, aviator, soldier, college professor, and writer Rev. Adrien R. Aeschliman (1899–1981)[5] and Dorothy G. (Schumacher) Aeschliman (1919–2006). He completed the college preparatory program and graduated from Tilton School (NH) in 1966. Aeschliman holds B.A., M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University (New York),[6] where he studied with Edward W. Tayler, Joseph A. Mazzeo, Lionel Trilling, and Fritz Stern.[7] Aeschliman taught at the University of Virginia from 1985 to 1993.[8] He ran a summer institute in Italy for the university's Jefferson Scholars, 1996–2009,[9] and also taught at the Catholic University of Milan (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) and the Université populaire de Lausanne.[10][11]
Aeschliman is the author of The Restoration of Man: C. S. Lewis and the Continuing Case against Scientism (3rd. edition, 2019; translated into French, 2020), which has been described by National Review (NY) as "a book marked by tremendous learning worn lightly, deployed vigorously, and offered generously to a generation that has forgotten how to think because it has lost its grip on the meaning of words."[12] The major French daily newspaper Le Figaro also hailed its publication, describing it as a work that "at long last makes accessible to the general reading public the essential reflections of C. S. Lewis on scientism and transhumanism."[13] The first edition was prefaced by the journalist Malcolm Muggeridge and praised by Russell Kirk as "One of the most perceptive books on C. S. Lewis," and "A succinct, strong book, worthy of Lewis himself."[14] Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury (2002–2012) wrote that: "The long overdue reappraisal of C.S. Lewis as a serious social critic and public intellectual has been much helped by Michael Aeschliman's incisive monograph."[15]
Aeschliman has written for National Review,[16] First Things,[17][18] Modern Age,[19] Crisis Magazine [20] and The Journal of Education (Boston).[21][citation needed] His work has also been published in Essays in Criticism (Oxford),[22] The Literary Criterion (Mysore, India), Semiotica (Toronto), The Imaginative Conservative,[23] The University Bookman (Mecosta, Michigan),[24] L'Analisi Linguistica e Letteraria (Milan)[25] and Evolution News and Science Today (Seattle).[26] In 1985 Harper's Magazine published "A cold, gray glow", his elegiac essay depicting the deleterious effect of television on rural Tuscan society.[27] Aeschliman has been a contributing author of This Will Hurt - The Restoration of Virtue & Civic Order,[28] of The Magician's Twin: C.S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society[29] and of The C. S. Lewis Readers' Encyclopedia,[30] and has introduced and edited a new edition of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.[31] In 1987, he introduced a new edition of Michael Muggeridge's Winter in Moscow.[32] He appeared in the film "The Magician's Twin: C.S. Lewis and the Case against Scientism" (2012)[33][34] In addition to C. S. Lewis, Aeschliman has written and lectured about G. K. Chesterton,[35][36] T. S. Eliot, F. R. Leavis[37] and John Henry Newman.[18]
