The Halifax Book Launch
By the Rev’d Dr. David Curry
Dr. Curry is rector of the Anglican Parish of Christ Church, in Windsor, Nova Scotia. He is also Vice-President of the Prayer Book Society of Canada and the Local Vicar of the Ste. Croix Branch of an Anglican Priests’ Society, the Society of the Holy Cross (Societas Sanctae Crucis, SSC).
The Halifax Book Launch (14-15 January 2024) offered an intriguing and at times poignant set of testimonials to the influence of the Rev’d Dr. Robert Crouse’s scholarship upon the more than one hundred persons who gathered to celebrate the enduring legacy of his teaching and preaching.
The Rt. Rev’d Victoria Matthews, Bishop of Christchurch, New Zealand (ret’d) preached at St. George’s Round Church commenting on Crouse’s unique and valued contributions to the global church. The Rev’d Gavin Dunbar from Savannah, Georgia gave an address on Crouse’s treatment of the classical Eucharistic lectionary of the Western Church and its continuing significance. He drew upon the artistic and geometric imagery of Raphael’s School of Athens and La Disputa in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura which suggest the interplay of philos- ophy and theology so dear to Crouse’s teaching. He also gave a paper on the relation of the Christian Sacred and Secular in relation to the art of Mi- chelangelo. Dr. Daniel Watson, having journeyed from Denmark, commented on Fr. Crouse as pastor and mentor.
Dr. Paige Hochschild of Mount St. Mary’s, Maryland offered a thoughtful treatment of the significance of memoria for the understanding of the integrity of human personality as developed by Crouse’s studies of Augustine, reminding us how Crouse's teaching of Dante gave so many students hope by his poetic exploration of that Augustinian personality.
The Rev’d Dr. Thomas Curran gave the sixth annual Robert Crouse Memorial lecture in the King's College Chapel following Evensong. His ad- dress drew on the imagery of la doppia danza, the double circle of the doctors emblematic of the reconciliation of opposites in Dante’s Paradiso (Canto XIII), and extended that imagery into the enlightenment and post-enlightenment world of Hegel, Schleiermacher, et alia. He told an amusing and revealing anecdote about Fr. Crouse attending an Anglican church in Europe only to hear the preacher preach one of his own sermons! He spoke to the preacher afterwards with four simple but devastating words: “I am Robert Crouse.” Imitation is, as they say, the highest form of flattery. Earlier in the day, Chris Snook showed how Crouse’s teaching understood and addressed many aspects of the existential angst of modernity, such as in Kafka’s “knowing the goal but not the way,” by allowing the voices of the past to speak to our present confusions without collapsing them into one other.
Rhea Bright commented on her Guide to the Images of Pilgrimage that complements Images itself. Musical offerings by Janet Ross et ensemble celebrated Fr. Crouse’s love and interest in the music of the Baroque.
The Rev'd Dr. Ross Hebb, a former student of Dr. Crouse, gave a lovely homily at Choral Evensong at Trinity Church, an evangelical flagship of the diocese of NSPEI, honoring Fr. Crouse’s influence as theologian, pastor, preacher and organist. Many former choristers who sang in the choirs at King's College and St George's returned to give praise, recollecting Fr. Crouse's musical legacy. Before Evensong, at the Dalhousie Classics Department Dr Bruce Gordon, Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale, gave a thoughtful address on Crouse’s teaching and understanding of Augustine, developing Crouse’s view of the many “Augustinianisms” from the medieval world to the reformation period. The banquet which followed was enjoyed by more than 100 guests, hosted admirably by the parishioners of Trinity Church and King's students. The splendid meal was framed by toasts and testimonials to the influence that Robert Darwin Crouse had on a generation of students in the Foundation Year Programme at King's and in the Classics Department at Dalhousie. Michelle Wilband and Dr. Roberta Barker thanked the speakers and offered their own insightful summaries of the two- day Halifax Book Launch.
Thus was the beginning of the promised ongoing gathering together of the writings and legacy of the Rev’d Dr. Robert Crouse, a gathering like that of the scattered leaves of Sibyl’s oracles.