Douglas Hall, the founding Principal of United College, passed away on April 10th of this year. He was 97 years old.
A native of Ingersoll, Ontario, Dr. Hall completed a doctorate in theology at the famous Union Theological Seminary in New York. In 1962, at a mere 34 years of age, he was appointed Principal of what was then St. Paul’s United College. He remained in that role for three years.
Dr. Hall went on to become one of Canada’s best-known theologians. He published thirty books – some academic and some for more popular audiences. Three of these publications were recognized as “Book of the Year” by the Academy of Parish Clergy. He was awarded honorary doctorates by ten universities and served as a distinguished visiting lecturer at universities in Japan, Austria, Germany and the United States. In recognition of his extraordinary academic achievement, Dr. Hall was awarded the Order of Canada, our nation’s highest civilian honour, in 2002.
Professor Emeritus Peter Frick first met Dr. Hall in 1992 when the founding Principal was back at the College to deliver a guest lecture. This was the beginning of a beautiful ongoing friendship, carried on by letter and rooted in a mutual love of theology. Dr. Frick summarizes Hall’s academic work this way:
Anyone who is familiar with his theological thinking will almost immediately detect the influence of Tillich and Niebuhr, two of his teachers. In addition to these thinkers, Hall was also significantly shaped by Barth, Bonhoeffer, Calvin, Luther, Moltmann, Ruether and many others. In the footsteps of his teachers, Hall called his theology “constructive theology.” By this expression he meant to draw on the core insights of biblical thinking and the best of Reformation theology, but to reformulate these foundational truths for our ever-changing world. In his own words, constructive theology “is theology formulated in such a way that it can be professed today, in this quite specific place and time. It is the church ordering its thought so as to address the world, namely the world within itself and the world beyond itself – to rediscover the meaning of the gospel” (Professing the Faith, 36).
As a young academic, Dr. Frick was struck by how supportive this famous senior theologian was to a relatively junior colleague. Frick says “the fact that I got to know Douglas Hall when I was a young scholar and faculty member at St. Paul’s deeply enriched my life and thinking. I am very grateful to have known him.”
Bob Rosehart, who went on to become President of both Lakehead and Wilfrid Laurier University, lived at St. Paul’s in the first year of Dr. Hall’s principalship. “He was very well liked by the students,” Bob recalls. Marg Murray, a civil engineering student at the College in 1964, says that Principal Hall made a deep impact on many students, including herself. It was his practice to lead weekly discussion groups as a means of promoting community. “His first question, which stayed with me/annoyed me for some years, was 'Does God exist? Or is God a figment of our imagination?' I couldn't get over his genuine interest in the students as well as his challenge to think our way through our faith and to learn to accept our doubts.”
Dr. Hall finished his career at McGill University and was a Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Religious Studies. McGill hosted a memorial service for him on June 27th of this year where he was eulogized as “an articulate voice for classical Protestant theology, deconstructed and reconstructed for the present.”
Rick Myers, the current Principal of United College, expresses appreciation for Douglas Hall’s work as the founding Principal of the College. “We are grateful to Douglas Hall for stepping forward to lead a fledgling institution and for imparting to it a spirit of friendship, humility and curiosity that have been core strengths ever since.”