Obituary Gerard Rouwhorst
The board and management of IRiLiS received the sad news that on 7 January, our former colleague Prof. Emeritus Gerard Rouwhorst passed away at the age of 74. Gerard made a significant contribution to the field of Liturgical Studies, both in the Netherlands and abroad, as well as to our Institute.
Research
Gerardus Antonius Maria Rouwhorst was born in Lichtenvoorde in 1951 and studied Theology at the Catholic Theological University Utrecht (KThU) and Utrecht University. After graduating in 1975, he continued his studies by starting a PhD on Ephrem the Syrian under Herman Wegman, professor of liturgical history at the KThU. Because he had also started taking over Wegman's lectures in 1980, he finally defended his thesis entitled “Les hymnes pascales d'Ephrem de Nisibe. Analyse théologique et recherche sur l'évolution de la fête pascale chrétienne à Nisibe et à Edesse et dans quelques Églises voisines au quatrième siècle” in 1985. In 1992, as one of his supervisor's students (along with Charles Caspers, Louis van Tongeren, Marc Schneiders and Paul Post), he succeeded Wegman as chair of Liturgical History. His inaugural lecture was entitled “The celebration of the Eucharist in the early church”. In 2007, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences merged with the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology (Tilburg University), where Gerard became professor of liturgical studies. On the occasion of his retirement in 2016, he gave a farewell lecture on “New perspectives on the liturgical traditions of early Christianity”.
On that occasion, he was presented with a farewell volume edited by two close colleagues from the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology, Paul van Geest and Marcel Poorthuis, and Els Rose, who obtained her PhD under Gerard’s supervision (Sanctifying texts, transforming rituals, 2017). This collection not only provides a complete bibliography covering the period 1980-2016 in its introduction, but also gives a good picture of Gerard's position in liturgical studies, theology and religious studies through the authors and the topics chosen.
Profile
Gerard's work had a clear profile from the outset. Gerard was interested in “texts and history”. Based on that substantive profile, he was closely involved with the inter-university Liturgical Institute from its inception in 1992. Within the Liturgical Institute, later IRILIS, he championed that perspective without presenting it as competing with other approaches and themes in ritual and liturgical studies. Gerard was always actively and passionately involved in the search for an adequate position for liturgical studies in the changing ecclesiastical and academic landscape. This is clearly reflected in several of his historiographical contributions. Particularly noteworthy is the collection Patterns and Persons (2010, Liturgica Condenda 25), which he co-edited and for which he wrote the introduction with Louis van Tongeren. In it, Gerard appreciates and endorses the openness and multidisciplinarity, the intensive cross-fertilisation with other disciplines within Dutch liturgical studies. But he also points out that this strength can also be a weakness, referring to the lack of a disciplinary profile.
Professional
Because Gerard was fluent in English, French and German, published in these languages and was able to converse fluently in international research networks such as Societas Liturgica, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Katholische Liturgiewissenschafter/innen and the Society for Oriental Liturgy, he gained renown and respect in a large network of liturgical scholars. His professional expertise and multilingualism made him a valued editorial member of our Institute's book series Liturgia Condenda and our journal Yearbook for Ritual and Liturgical Studies. Combined with his helpful attitude, this made Gerard an ideal colleague to consult. This could involve minor questions about liturgical history literature in the English, German or French language areas, but also the assessment of (sometimes voluminous) manuscripts in one of those languages. Always constructive and friendly towards colleagues, he was able to combine gentleness with clear judgement in his assessments: if he had doubts about the quality of a manuscript, he would raise them. And when an author submitted a revised version based in part on Gerard's constructive criticism, Gerard was always willing to review that manuscript a second time at our request.
In Gerard, we have lost an engaging and charming colleague and we remember him with gratitude for who he was, as a person and as a scholar, and for what we received from him. Our thoughts are with his wife and children and their partners.
Prof. dr. Mirella Klomp
Professor of Practical Theology (Worship & Formation)
