Cain Hope Felder, a biblical scholar who taught at the Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, D.C., for 35 years, died on October 1 at his home in Mobile, Alabama. He was 76 years old.
Born in Aiken, South Carolina, as an infant Felder moved with his family to Boston. He graduated from the prestigious Boston Latin Public High School. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, Greek, and Latin from Howard University. Dr. Felder earned a master of divinity degree at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He held a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in biblical language and literature from Columbia University in New York.
Originally ordained as an elder in the United Methodist Church, he served as pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in New York City before joining the faculty at the Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey in 1978. In 1981, Dr. Felder joined the faculty at Howard University School of Divinity serving as professor of New Testament language and literature and editor of The Journal of Religious Thought. He retired from Howard in 2016.
Dr. Felder was the author of several books including Troubling Biblical Waters: Race, Class, and Family (Orbis Books, 1990). The book is now in its 16th printing.
