Douglas John Hall (born 1928) is an emeritus professor
of theology at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...
in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, and a minister of the
United Church of Canada
The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...
. Prior to joining the McGill Faculty of Religious Studies in 1975 he was MacDougald Professor of Systematic Theology at St Andrew's College in the
University of Saskatchewan
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
(1965–1975), Principal of St Paul's College in the
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...
(1962–1965), and minister of St Andrew's Church in Blind River,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
(1960–1962).
Early life and education
Hall was born on March 23, 1928, in
Ingersoll,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
. He attended high school and business college in
Woodstock
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...
, Ontario, and worked for four years in that city's daily newspaper. In 1948–1949 he studied
composition
Composition or Compositions may refer to:
Arts and literature
*Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography
*Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...
and
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
at the
Royal Conservatory of Music in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
. He was graduated (
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
) from the
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...
(London) in 1953. His graduate degrees are all from
Union Theological Seminary in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
:
Master of Divinity (1956),
Master of Sacred Theology
The Master of Sacred Theology ( la, Sacrae Theologiae Magister; abbreviated STM) is a graduate-level, North American, academic degree in theology equivalent to ThM. The Roman Catholic equivalent is the Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL). An ...
(1957),
Doctor of Theology (1963).
Professional life
The author of 24 published works, including a three-volume
systematic theology
Systematic theology, or systematics, is a discipline of Christian theology that formulates an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the doctrines of the Christian faith. It addresses issues such as what the Bible teaches about certain topic ...
, and numerous articles, Hall lectured widely in the United States and Canada during the period 1974–2010. He was ''Gastprofessor'' at the
University of Siegen, Germany, in 1980; Visiting Scholar at
Doshisha University
, mottoeng = Truth shall make you free
, tagline =
, established = Founded 1875,Chartered 1920
, vision =
, type = Private
, affiliation =
, calendar =
, endowment = €1 ...
in
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...
, Japan, in 1989; Professor of Theology at the Melanchthon Institute of Houston,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, in 1999; member of the Campbell Seminar on the Future of the Church at Columbia Seminary of Decatur,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
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* Related to the ...
, in 2000; Distinguished Visiting Professor at
Trinity Lutheran Seminary
Trinity Lutheran Seminary at Capital University is an Evangelical Lutheran seminary in Columbus, Ohio.
History
In 1830, the German Theological Seminary of the Ohio Synod, later known as the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary (ELTS), was fo ...
,
Columbus,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, in 2001; Theologian-in-Residence, Church of the Crossroads in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...
(2003 f.); and Theologian-in-Residence, International Protestant Church in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
(2003).
Hall was an active participant in many international consultations including the World Convocation of the
World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...
(WCC) in
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...
,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
, 1990, and the UN AIDS theological symposium in
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
(2003). He served on theological committees of the WCC and the
World Alliance of Reformed Churches
The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) was a fellowship of more than 200 churches with roots in the 16th-century Reformation, and particularly in the theology of John Calvin. Its headquarters was in Geneva, Switzerland. They are now merged ...
, the United Church of Canada, the
National Council of Churches USA, ''et al.''
Thought
Influenced by his teachers
Reinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was an American Reformed theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of Ameri ...
,
Paul Tillich, John Coleman Bennett, and others, as well as fellow-Canadians including
George Grant and
Emil Fackenheim, Hall desired to understand and further the biblical and mainstream Reformation Protestant traditions of critical and
constructive theology
Constructive theology is the redefinition of what historically has been known as systematic theology. The reason for this reevaluation stems from the idea that, in systematic theology, the theologian attempts to develop a coherent theory running t ...
. He argues that over the past two centuries the Christian religion has been experiencing a momentous and (for most) disconcerting transition ("metamorphosis"): after fifteen centuries of legal and cultural "Establishment" in the West, Christianity is being challenged by the evolution of planetary history to assume a more modest, dialogical and humanly responsible position in the new global society.
Accordingly, he believes, the church must abandon the ''theological'' triumphalism that has typified its long fraternization with empire, and search its biblical and doctrinal traditions for ways of engaging, rather than seeking to monopolize the spiritual and intellectual life of humankind. In his books and lectures Hall argues that the stance (''modus vivendi'') appropriate to Christianity in the post-Christendom context is best illuminated by the ("never much loved"
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Hall affirms that ''theology'', in contrast to both "doctrine" and piety ("spirituality"), involves both historical knowledge and conscious, informed immersion in one's cultural context [contextuality]. Authentic theology only occurs where the claims of faith meet and wrestle with the great (characteristically repressed) questions and instabilities of the ''Zeitgeist''
pirit of the times "Establishment" Christianity was content to ''transmit'' dogma and morality from place to place, generation to generation; post-Christendom theology entails original and diligent ''thinking
enkarbeit!' including the entertainment of doubt and disbelief, on the part of the disciple-community. Today faith in all its forms and expressions is called to rescue human thinking as such from its captivation by "technical reason" (Tillich) or ''rechnendes Denken'' (
Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
), as it manifests itself today (e.g.) in the West's educational emphasis on
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) often to the virtual exclusion of the arts and humanities (''Sciences humaines et sociales'').
Personal life
Hall married the late Rhoda Catherine Palfrey, a fellow Canadian and graduate student at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, in 1960 at
Riverside Church, New York City. They have four adult children (Kate, Christopher, Sara and Lucy), three of whom are professional musicians, and eight grandchildren.
Selected publications
* Lighten Our Darkness: Towards an Indigenous Theology of the Cross (1976)
* Has the Church a Future? (1980)
* The Steward: A Biblical Symbol Come of Age (1982)
* Christian Mission: The Stewardship of Life in the Kingdom of Death (1985)
* God and Human Suffering: An Exercise in the Theology of the Cross (1986)
* A Trilogy: Christian Theology in a North American Context
** Thinking the Faith (1991)
** Professing the Faith (1993)
** Confessing the Faith (1996)
* "Why Christian?" - For those on the Edge of Faith (1998)
* Remembered Voices: Reclaiming the legacy of 'Neo-Orthodoxy' (1998)
* ''The End of Christendom and the Future of Christianity'' (2002)
* ''When You Pray: Thinking Your Way into God’s World'' (2003)
* ''Imaging God: Dominion as Stewardship'' (2004)
* ''The Messenger: Friendship, Faith, and Finding One’s Way'' (2011)
* ''Waiting for Gospel: An Appeal to the Dispirited Remnants of Protestant "Establishment"'' (2012)
* ''What Christianity Is Not: An Exercise in "Negative" Theology'' (2013)
Honours
* Member of the Order of Canada (C.M.) - 2003
* Distinguished Alumnus of Union Theological Seminary – 1995
* The Joseph Sittler Medal for Leadership in Theology, Trinity Seminary (Columbus) – 2002
* Three Book of the Year awards, Academy of Parish Clergy -1994, 1997, 2004
* Ten Honorary Doctorates:
** Queen's University, Kingston – D.D. 1988
** The University of Waterloo – LL.D. 1992
** The Presbyterian Theological College of Montreal – D.D. 1995
** Victoria University in the University of Toronto – D.D. 2003
** Montreal Diocesan College – S.T.D. 2007
** United Theological College, Montreal – D.D. 2007
** Huron University College, University of Western Ontario – D.D. 2009
** St Andrew's Theological College, University of Saskatchewan – D.D. 2011
** Wartburg Theological College, Dubuque, Iowa – D.D. 2013
** Vancouver School of Theology -D.D. 2013
Notes
References
*
Further reading
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Douglas John
1928 births
Canadian Protestant theologians
Living people
Members of the Order of Canada
McGill University faculty
Ministers of the United Church of Canada
Systematic theologians
Union Theological Seminary (New York City) alumni
University of Saskatchewan faculty
University of Western Ontario alumni
People from Ingersoll, Ontario
Canadian expatriates in the United States