"Last Lecture" Series Continues at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at the College of the Holy Cross continues its "Last Lecture" series on Monday, April 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library with a lecture by Frederick Murphy of the religious studies department. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Funded by the Lilly Endowment Vocation Initiative, the pretext of the lecture is that the speaker is about to retire and has been asked to sum up in a final lecture to students what they believe has made the work they've dedicated themselves to meaningful and worthwhile. Given a "last" chance, what's worth saying? What wisdom would be most important to pass on? What challenges have to go unfulfilled?

Murphy has been a member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1983. Recognized in 2001 with the Holy Cross Distinguished Teaching Award, he has expertise in the New Testament, Second Temple Judaism, the historical Jesus and the Hebrew Bible. Murphy is the author of five books including The Structure and Meaning of Second Baruch, The Religious World of Jesus: An Introduction to Second Temple Palestinian Judaism, Pseudo-Philo: Rewriting the Bible, Fallen is Babylon: The Revelation to John, and Early Judaism: From the Exile to the Time of Jesus.

Murphy earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in religion and a Ph.D. in New Testament and Christian origins from Harvard University. He also studied at the Weston School of Theology and the University of London.