Aron Reppmann '92

associate professor of philosophy; director of the Honors Program

on faculty since 1998

Phone: 708.239.4750
Fax: 708. 597.5858
E-mail: aron.reppmann@trnty.edu

Education

Ph.D., Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois, 2006
M.A., Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois, 1995
B.A., Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights, Illinois, 1992

Professional and Personal Interests

Before Aron Reppmann ’92 decided to major in philosophy, one of his Trinity philosophy professors gave him some frank advice.
   
“John Roose told me to ‘quit playing around’ with the other majors I was considering,” Reppmann recalls about his mentor. “He recognized that the breadth and expansiveness of the discipline of philosophy would give me space to pursue many interests rather than narrowly restricting my focus.”
   
After graduating from Trinity with a degree in philosophy and earning a master’s degree at Loyola, he returned to his alma mater as an adjunct professor while continuing his doctoral studies. In 1998, he began teaching full time in the philosophy department and took leadership of Trinity’s Honors Program, which seeks to challenge and support academically gifted students through seminars, unique opportunities within the major program, and participation in co-curricular activities. Reppmann says teaching gives him the chance to learn about the worldview of his students.
   
“It’s fun and challenging to find out where they come from and what perspectives they have. They come with different viewpoints, and that diversity of experiences leads to a positive tension during classroom discussions. It also helps them learn more about themselves as young Christians.”
   
Reppmann considers his work as a scholar and teacher of philosophy to be deeply connected to the College’s conviction that teaching and learning are ways of co-working with Christ, involving the whole person in “subjecting all cultural activities to the reign of God.”
   
“Philosophy lives in its questions, not in the answers that have already been given. The Reformed tradition is practical and active in its orientation. As Christians, we participate in God’s redemptive plan, and encountering the world through philosophical questioning is one way to do that.”
   
Reppmann finished a six-year term on Trinity’s alumni board in 1999, spending two years each as president and vice president. Since his freshman year, there have been only nine months when he had no official ties with the College.
   
A native of Bellflower, California, Reppmann lives in Evergreen Park, Illinois, with his wife, Karen (Swieringa) ’92, their son, Anthony, and their daughter, Zoe. They are members of Hope Christian Reformed Church in Oak Forest, Illinois.

Courses Taught

• Aesthetics
• English Composition: Honors
• History of Philosophy I
• Honors Philosophy
• Major Philosophical Authors
• Philosophical Perspectives I

Professional Society Membership

• The Small College Honors Program Committee of the National Collegiate
  Honors Council
• The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy
• The Society of Christian Philosophers

Papers Published and/or Presented

•  “Myth, history, and humility: the Christian historian and mythmaking.” FIDES ET HISTORIA 37.2/38.1, 51-60. Summer/Fall 2005 and Winter/Spring 2006.
• “The ambiguity of transcendence: surveying contested common ground in Plato, Vollenhoven, and Levinas.” Presented at the conference “Intelligibility of the Transcendent: Thinking with Levinas about God, Philosophy and Education.” Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto, Canada. March 2005. 
• “Discipleship and North American Christianity.” Presented to the English Fellowship of Seminari Alkitab Asia Tenggara (Southeast Asia Bible Seminary), Malang, Indonesia. April 2005.
• “The interplay of correctness and chance in Plato.” Presented at the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, Fordham University, New York City. October 2005.
• “The truth of love and the love of truth: a Christian Plato-scholar stops to look at what he’s doing, and why.” Pro Rege 32.4, pp. 1-8. June 2004.