Carole R. Fontaine

Carole R. Fontaine (born 1950) is an internationally recognized American biblical scholar. Before retirement, she was the John Taylor professor of biblical theology and history at the Andover Newton Theological School and feminist author of six books and over 100 articles, in addition to serving on several editorial boards (including the Journal of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, and the World Book Encyclopedia). She has written extensively on feminist theological topics, including disability, and is an expert in wisdom traditions and women in the ancient Near East.

Fontaine works on women's rights through NGOs designed to study the impact of religion on women's lives, particularly in a Muslim context.

A collection of her poetry, Only When Women Sing: Poems on Human Rights was published in 2009.

Early life

Carole R. Fontaine was born on April 11, 1950, and raised in Miami, Florida, in an area now known as "Little Haiti". Fontaine was raised by her mother, Olive Jean Rader, and her father, Howard Foster. She was introduced to Jesus through the Southern Baptist church, and enjoyed Sunday school because of the grape juice and cookies they provided. The area that she grew up in allowed her to have a very diverse set of peers and mentors who guided Fontaine through her life.

Fontaine has been getting in trouble for her activism since she was in grade school. She recollects her time spent in the principal's office due to refusing to salute the flag after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and only saying the pledge if she added, "...with liberty and justice for some us." She often passed time in detention by helping the other children who were also in there, seemingly flourishing her love for teaching.

As a young girl, Fontaine was rounded up into buses by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who played a pivotal role in drafting the first Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, to be introduced to classical music. After the children had listened to classical music for the first time, Roosevelt gave a speech to the children on the importance of Human Rights.

She ended up leaving the Southern Baptist church she so strongly loved in 1966 due to the looks of the faces on the congregation when a Black family came to praise.

At the end of her high school career, she found out that her guidance counselor had sent in her applications to college for her without her knowledge. She was accepted into Florida State University entirely on scholarship, thankfully, due to living below the poverty line as a child.

Unfortunately, while attending Florida State University, Fontaine got in a tragic car accident that left her with a traumatic brain injury. She accredits her sanity throughout her recovery to her interest in art and poetry.

Academic Pursuits

Fontaine went on to graduate from Florida State University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1972. She then continued her education at Yale Divinity School, graduating with a Master of Arts in Religion in 1976. Fontaine finished her higher education experience at Duke University where she became a Doctor of Philosophy in 1979.

While at Yale Divinity, Carole R. Fontaine was recognized as a scholar. Through 1976 to 1979, Fontaine was named a Gurney Harris Kearns fellow at Duke University. While at Duke she also completed, and was awarded, the Zion Foundation grant.

Her first job as an educator was at University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1979. Shortly after, she became a lecturer at Duke Divinity School. In 1982, Fontaine was offered an adjunct professor position at Boston College in Massachusetts. Carole R. Fontaine accepted a graduate professor position from Andover Newton Theological School in 1979, and eventually retired from there.

While at Andover Newton Theological School, Fontaine was a professor of multiple different courses: Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Wisdom Literature, Interpretation Methods, Feminist Interpretation, and Hebrew Language. Her college education and her professorship has made her an expert on human rights, women's rights, and theology. Andover Newton Theological School gives her praise for being a “…lively…” professor who is capable of using her interest in arts and technology to make the “…Bible come alive…” for her students.

Beginning in 1999, Fontaine worked in Human Rights discourse until finally being recognized as a theologian.

Feminist Theology

Feminist theology analyzes religion, and religious relics, through a feminist theory, or perspective. The first recognized Feminist Theologian was Dr. Rosemary Radford Ruether, who passed away in May 2022.

Dr. Fontaine began her work in Theology in a Human Resources department. She was an advocate for the Human Rights of those who are less likely to be advocated for. While her focus of advocacy was broadly located in the Ancient Near East, which covers places such as Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates, she noticed the need to advocate for Muslim women and girls specifically. Fontaine recognized that Muslim women were being socially constrained due to the patriarchal structures interpreted within the Quran. Inspired by philosophers such as Martha Nussbaum, whose scholarly focus is on the feminist perspective, and Amartya Sen, who won the 1998 Nobel Prize for his role in welfare economics and social choice theory, Fontaine adopted the methodology of ‘human capabilities’. This method focuses on human equity by recognizing that not all humans will flourish under the same conditions, and all humans should have the right to prosper in ways that aid them, not based upon the patriarchal structures promoted and translated within the Bible.

Dr. Fontaine noticed the absence of women and children in the standards declared by the United Nations Declaration of Universal Human Rights, and now is a Research Associate for the Women’s United Nations Report Network. When analyzing the UNDUHR’s vision for economic, social, and cultural rights, Fontaine found that both, women’s and religious rights, are dependent upon the proficiency of society as whole.

After her role in aiding and collaborating with Muslim women and their Human Rights advocacy, Dr. Fontaine fell under the radar of various government security services. While she was initially thought to be a terrorist, she was instead labeled a ‘dissident’. The government used Fontaine as an example of their leniency towards United States religious dissidents, allowing her to exemplify her free speech to Amnesty International leaders. Dr. Fontaine then became internationally recognized speaking in multiple different countries, and most notably for women’s groups at the United Nations.

Select Bibliography

• Traditional Sayings in the Old Testament, Almond Press, 1982, ISBN 0-907459-09-9
• A Heifer from Thy Stable: On Goddesses and the Status of Women in the Ancient Near East, reprinted in Women in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader, ed. Alice Bach (New York: Routledge, 1999), pp. 159–78
• Wisdom and Psalms: A Feminist Companion to the Bible, Sheffield Academic Press, 1999, ISBN 1-85075-917-0
• A Feminist Companion to Reading the Bible: Approaches, Methods, and Strategies, Sheffield Academic Press, 1997, ISBN 1-85075-674-0
• Smooth Words: Women, Proverbs And Performance In Biblical Wisdom, Sheffield Academic Press, 2004, ISBN 0-567-04270-7
• With Eyes of Flesh: The Bible, Gender and Human Rights (Bible in the Modern World)', Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008, ISBN 1-905048-55-6
• "Golden Do’s and Don’ts: Leviticus 19:1-17 from a Human-Rights-Based Approach (HRBA)," in Leviticus and Numbers: Text@Contexts Series, edited by Athalya Brenner and Archie Chi-Chung Lee, Fortress Press, 2013.
• Fontaine, Carole R. “A Modern Look at Ancient Wisdom: The Instruction of Ptahhotep Revisited.” The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 44, no. 3, 1981, pp. 155–60. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3209606. Accessed 27 Sept. 2024.A Heifer from Thy Stable: On Goddesses and the Status of Women in the Ancient Near East, reprinted in Women in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader, ed. Alice Bach (New York: Routledge, 1999), pp. 159–78
• Fontaine, Carole R., and Timothy J. Sandoval. “Proverbs.” Wisdom, Worship, and Poetry: Fortress Commentary on the Bible Study Edition, edited by Gale A. Yee et al., 1517 Media, 2016, pp. 601–26. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1b3t793.12. Accessed 27 Sept. 2024.

Media appearances

• Biography – "Satan: Prince of Darkness"
• Moses (Film Roos Emmy nomination)
• Solomon and Sheba
• Mysteries of the Bible – "JOB - The Devil's Test"

"She has numerous media credits (BBC; C-Span; Discovery Channel; National Geographic, and Arts & Entertainment Networks)" and Persian Satellite Network (broadcasts into Iran and Iraq).

External links

• Faculty profile at Andover Newton Theological School