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Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm., feminist mentor: rightly did the maidens love him
Biblical Theology Bulletin, Fall, 2003 by Carole R. Fontaine
When I first arrived at Duke University in 1979 to begin doctoral studies in Old Testament, I did not know how truly lucky I was. "Oh, you're Roland's student" was the greeting I received immediately from the Religion Department when I checked in. It was news to me, though Roland Murphy was certainly the reason why a professor at Yale had suggested Duke as a place for me to study wisdom traditions. I had read Roland's work, naturally, as I waited for school to begin, but I did not translate that into immediately being tagged as "his"! Where I was studying, students were very lucky indeed if such well known professors even kept appointments with them or turned in their grades after a year or two, much less took an interest in them at the outset! The Religion Department at Duke had already impressed me, calling me repeatedly during the decision period, with smooth words and substantive offers of assistance, so my choice had been an easy one. But I wasn't really expecting to be considered worthy of any attention by anyone, given my previous experiences of graduate study.
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I knocked on his office door, but didn't find him; one old timer grad student who spotted me said, "Oh, he's just coming in; look for an enormous Q-tip--he's got his robes on!" As it turned out, Roland sweeping quickly through the halls of the Divinity School in the brown robes of his order with an thick shock of white hair emerging from the top did give off the aspect of a highly effective Q-tip on the move! Maybe it was the "costume," maybe it was the stories of the other students, maybe it was the reading of Murphy's work I had already done: after our first introduction, I moved into a relationship of mentoring and wideranging conversations that was to last for over two decades and which, even after his death, continues to nourish me. Yes, I was a very lucky young bible scholar in the making!
When one looks at Murphy's enormous amount of scholarly production, his relentless attention to scholarly detail as well as the theological "Big Picture," his committed involvement with the life of faith and the building up of other believers, it is more difficult to remember his presence in the classroom and behind the scenes of academia. This is no surprise, since those aspects of his career were known only to his students and colleagues during his career, and represent the "orality" of the man's work. As such, not all of what he was or did in that context has been "documented," but since it has been treasured up in this heart at least, I add it here as part of the tribute to my teacher.
Roland was a familiar and beloved fixture of the Duke University and Catholic communities in the Research Triangle of North Carolina in those years. Whether early in the morning or late after working hours, you could find Roland reliably in his office and available. He brought his little lunch daily--cheese and sprout sandwich on whole wheat--and consumed it with a pint of dark beer. In early days, he used to have his lunch openly in the Divinity Student lounge where any M.Div. or Catholic seeker could find him and engage him in lively theological conversations. Eventually, tee-totaling Methodists put a stop to all that free discourse: surely no one should be subjected to the sight of a religious person drinking beer on site! So Roland retreated to his office for lunch, but those not offended by his choice of beverage were always welcome to join him. Catholics across the campus solicited Roland for spiritual advice and prayer: on one of his daily swims at the pool where he repeated the Psalms of Ascent in both Hebrew and Latin, keying the verses to his swim strokes as a form of his meditative practice, he encountered the much beloved "Coach K" of the Duke University Basketball Team--always contenders for national championships and the pride of Duke sports, then and now. "Father!" cried out Coach K, a Polish Catholic with a Chicago background that placed him within Roland's old stomping grounds, "Would you pray for the team, Father? Please!" Roland replied in that booming, joyous voice of his, "I always do, Coach! I always do."
Within his own department, one has only to look at the list of women students trained by the graduate school during the time Roland taught at Duke University to conclude that there must have been something of a special atmosphere--a woman-friendly one!--about the place. (It's not so much that anyone went out of his/her way to make women feel welcome, but rather that we were able to flourish under the atmosphere of benign neglect that obtained for all students.) Beverly Gaventa, Barbara Geller, Claudia Camp, Elizabeth Huweiler, A. J. Levine, and scores of women studying for the M.Div. all benefited from Roland's ready acceptance of their presence, their questions and their insights. Indeed, when I speak around the country on topics of wisdom, psalms or the Song of Songs, it is rare when some woman does not emerge from the audience to tell me her "Roland Story." "Oh!" said one to me, "you studied with Roland Murphy? No wonder you're like you are! He's the most exciting man I've ever heard talk about the Bible. And parts of the Bible you don't hear about, too. Why, after the day-long retreat he did for our denominational association on the Song of Songs--gosh, the audience was so turned on, we fled the building looking for our spouses! The only possible response to what he said was to go celebrate your sexuality with your partner--and it's biblical, too!"
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