Roland Mushat Frye (July 3, 1921 – January 13, 2005) was an American

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

scholar and

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

Career

Frye was born in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

. In 1943 he interrupted his studies to enlist in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

and fought at the

Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive or Unternehmen Die Wacht am Rhein, Wacht am Rhein, was the last major German Offensive (military), offensive Military campaign, campaign on the Western Front (World War II), Western ...

, winning a Bronze Star. After the war, Frye taught at

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

and joined

Folger Shakespeare Library The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materia ...

in Washington D.C. as a research professor in residence. He returned to teaching in 1965, accepting a professorship at Penn. He was Schelling Professor of English Literature

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

from 1965 until his retirement in 1983. In 1978, he co-founded the Center of Theological Inquiry, an independent institution sponsored by the

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a Private university, private seminary, school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Establish ...

. Frye was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Award by the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. The American Philosophical Society also awarded him both the Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities in 1989 and the John Frederick Lewis Award in 1975. He was a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

elder. Frye was an opponent of

creationism Creationism is the faith, religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of Creation myth, divine creation, and is often Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific.#Gunn 2004, Gun ...

. He was the editor of ''Is God a Creationist?: The Religious Case Against Creation-Science'' which was positively reviewed in '' The Quarterly Review of Biology'' as an "excellent refutation of the creationist's claim to speak for orthodox religion."

Publications

* ''Milton's Imagery and the Visual Arts: Iconographic Tradition in the Epic Poems'' * ''Is God a Creationist?: The Religious Case Against Creation-Science'' * ''God, Man and Satan: Patterns of Christian Thought and Life in "Paradise Lost", "Pilgrim's Progress" and the Great Theologians'' * ''The Renaissance Hamlet: Issues and Responses in 1600'' * ''Shakespeare: The Art of the Dramatist'' * ''Shakespeare and Christian Doctrine'' * ''The Reader's Bible - a Narrative - Selections from The King James Version'' * ''Shakespeare's Life and Times: A Pictorial Record'' * ''Perspective on Man - Literature and the Christian Tradition'' * ''Language for God and Feminist Language: Problems and Principles'' * ''The Teachings of Classical Puritanism on Conjugal Love''

References

1921 births 2005 deaths American academics of English literature American literary critics American theologians United States Army personnel of World War II American critics of creationism Folger Shakespeare Library University of Pennsylvania faculty Writers about religion and science Writers from Birmingham, Alabama Members of the American Philosophical Society {{US-theologian-stub