Posted on October 12, 2021
Especially in gratitude, for who he was and for so many good things that he had meant to us, and also with sadness that he has now passed away, we remember for a while, but forever, the gift that Jurie le Roux was to us.
To his loved ones he gave his all; to academic and church work (the latter, 1972-2010, part time) he devoted his professional energies. He was an intellectual giant, with the humble idea that he knew too little; he however surpassed us all. In wealth he did not grow up. With dedication, however, he pursued academic paths, eventually with an Honours degree in Philosophy, a Master's degree in Sociology and a Doctorate degree each in Ancient Church History and in Old Testament Studies. He was always intensely grateful that a university career had been afforded him. Highlights included his membership of the South African Academy for Science and Arts and chairing the Old Testament Society of South Africa.
Jurie's academic approach, first at Unisa (1971-1986) and then at UP (1987-2009, and then after retirement, in other capacities still), was to immerse himself in the ancient as much as in the modern. This is done by reading, reading, reading, until you get a sense of what things had been like then and how, in the light thereof, life could be now. Then you understand. If only a little something. Then again to listen, discuss, read and present another paper. Dedication, always.
In Jurie's intellectual world, there were no past and present; there was only past-andpresent. Likewise, there was with Jurie no faith and life; there was faith-and-life. Peoplewho-always-matter. God-who-is-always-there-and-here. All of these matters are too complex fully to grasp. That is why one writes about it, reverently, and as a service: extended class notes; daily e-devotionals and the “small theological artworks” of teo.co.za; countless sermons; an article, a chapter or a book.
In retrospect, Jurie had become the most influential academic in South African Theology through his Pro Pent initiative. How many offshoots aren’t there! In which, in areas other than Jurie's beloved Pentateuch, we imitated his two-decade-long zeal, now also on the Psalms, the Prophets, the Apocalyptic literature, the Wisdom books, Song of Songs, the Qumran writings. These in-depth specialist projects all bear the hallmark of Jurie le Roux's original blueprint.
Along with his close ones and his work, Jurie had a lifelong love for classical music and for literature of all kinds; for the French existentialists and the German hermeneuticists; for people who suffer; for the Afrikaans language (besides the additional three ancient and three modern languages he had learnt); for students and colleagues; for the intellectual tradition; for coffee and eggs, pap and wors, a slice of toast; a Coke and – only occasionally – a beer, non-alcoholic. His childhood days in the family's café where he sat and did his schoolwork, would later find an unexpected resonance when he came across i.a. Sartre’s and Camus's coffeeshop discussions and writing, from where they had changed the world. This was recreated in how Jurie met his students and colleagues, with countless intellectual conversations over meals.
Some of those places no longer exist. But we who had been shaped by his thinking, as a matter of reflex continue that tradition. Thus Jurie's thoughts had come to enrich extended circles, where they eventually became rooted, mostly wholly anonymously so. As is the case with everything that gives us meaning. This is the oblivion and the joys that together create life; Deo gratia - according to Qohelet.
When Jean-Paul Sartre delivered the eulogy after the sudden death of his erstwhile friend Albert Camus, in a typical French way – at which characterisation Jurie would laugh! – Sartre said: To be apart from one another, is just another way of being together. And so our good-bye to Jurie is really no farewell. We yet remain differently together.
Read colleagues’ academic reflections on Jurie:
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