Download: HUSD CELEBRATES THE LEGACY OF The Reverend Cain Hope Felder, Ph.D.
Cain Hope Felder is Professor of New Testament Language & Literature and Editor of The Journal of Religious Thought and Chair of the Academic Standing and Doctoral Programs committees at the Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, DC. His listing of accomplishments is equally remarkable. Some of his publications include the first African American New Testament Commentary True to Our Native Land(Augsburg Fortress, 2007); Troubling Biblical Waters: Race, Class, and Family (Orbis Books, 1989)-18th printing; Editor, Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation (Fortress Press, 1991)-14th printing; The Seasons of Lent: Proclamation Commentary (Fortress Press, 1991); The Original African Heritage Study Bible (Winston Derek, 1993); “Commentary on the Epistle of James” in The International Bible Commentary (Liturgical Press, 1998); Consulting Editor and Contributor, African American Jubilee Bible (New York: American Bible Society) 1999; and Co-Editor Jubilee Legacy Bible (Nashville: Townsend Press, (2000); Introduction and Critical Notes on the Epistle of James in the New Oxford Annotated Bible (2001); Epistle to Philemon in the New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI, 2001; and Race, Racism and the Biblical Narratives (Fortress Press, 2002).
From 1969 to 1972, Dr. Felder worked as the first National Director of the United Methodist Black Caucus which was headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally ordained as an Elder in the United Methodist Church, he served as Pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in New York City (1975-1977). Currently, Rev. Felder now serves as an Elder in the Second Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church where he has been appointed by Bishop Adam Jefferson Richardson as the Resident Biblical Scholar for the District. He is an active member of Hemingway Memorial AME Church, located in District Heights, MD.
From 1998 to 2001, Dr. Felder served as Chair of the Implementation Panel for the National Center for African American Heritage & Culture at Howard University. He has been on Howard’s faculty since 1981, having come to Washington from Princeton Theological Seminary where he taught as a member of the Department of Biblical Studies (1978-1981). His educational background is extensive: Ph.D., M. Phil., Columbia University in Biblical Languages and Literature; Diploma of Theology, Oxford University, England; Master of Divinity, Union Theological Seminary, New York; BA in Philosophy and Classics, Howard University, Washington, DC; and Diploma, Boston Latin School.
Dr. Felder is the founder of the Biblical Institute of Social Change (BISC)Washington, DC, organized in the Spring of 1990. BISC has been dedicated to inform, inspire, affirm, and transform the Christian community through scholarship and research. This organization serves as a catalyst for a renewed interest in Biblical Interpretation in diverse quarters: prisons, half way houses, local churches, and campus ministry settings.
Maintaining dual residences in Washington, DC and his home haven in Mobile, Alabama that he shares with his bride, Dr. Jewell, affectionately called “Dr. J.”, Dr. Felder is the proud father of one daughter, Miss Akidah Felder, a graduate of Spellman College and current dual Masters student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.
