By Brett Younger
For four years at the Mercer Preaching Consultation, Alan Culpepper and I have led a discussion on each year’s Advent texts. The first year I compared us to Simon and Garfunkel. The dean responded that it was a reference that only old people would get.
The next year I suggested we were Batman and Robin. If you remember the old TV series you know that Adam West does, in his best moments, bear a striking resemblance to Dr. Culpepper. The dean, however, let me know that he does not think of himself as the Dark Knight.
The third year I thought about Ben and Jerry, Bill and Ted, Bert and Ernie, and Butch and Sundance. I ended up suggesting the Dean is both Lennon and McCartney, and I am Ringo.
The fourth year I admitted the truth, that I would like to think of us as Paul and Timothy, but I am way too old to be Timothy, and Alan is way too smart to be Paul.
On each of those four occasions, we divided the Bible study in a way that played to our strengths. The dean offered fascinating, illuminating, heretofore never imagined insights into the biblical text, and I suggested the best way to hand out candy canes during the children’s sermon.
Alan is stepping down after 20 years as dean of the Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology. He has created a school that is a gift to Christian studies and Christ’s church.
Mercer Chancellor Dr. R. Kirby Godsey said, “Alan Culpepper brought spiritual insight and academic credibility to the creation of the McAfee School of Theology.”
Third-year McAfee student Daniel Elliott said, “The dean is a snappy dresser, an excellent arm wrestler, and an underrated jazz flutist.”
After a long overdue sabbatical, Alan will be joining the faculty, which will continue to treat him with the obeisance to which he has grown accustomed.
Separating the man from the myth is hard. I have been working with the dean for seven years and do not know which stories are true, but here is some of what I heard.
Rudolph (or Richard) Alan Culpepper was born in 1930. One story is that he grew up as the son of missionaries in Chile and Argentina. Another is that he played the young George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Like George, Alan wanted to explore the world, but the dean did not stay in Bedford Falls. He went to the most exotic school he could imagine, Baylor University, and then to the glamorous Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
He was quite the student. For his dissertation at Duke University he wanted to translate The DaVinci Code into Greek. He was crestfallen to learn this had already been done. His advisor suggested, “Maybe you can write something on John.” And the rest is history.
His writings on the Gospel of John brought him worldwide renown. He has written nine celebrated, scholarly books, though many do not know that he has also written a series of successful romance novels under the pseudonym Alana St. John — including the steamy Anatomy of the Fourth Love.
The dean speaks 42 languages, including an Eskimo dialect spoken by only three elderly women, but one of them is an expert on Johannine literature.
The dean is quite a carpenter. It is a fact that he built his own boat — which I have seen (though not in the water). It is an unconfirmed legend that he built his home using only a pair of pliers.
Alan is an outstanding fisherman. He may have won the Oklahoma Noodling Championship in 1996 and 1997.
The search committee looking for a new dean will have a difficult time replicating the skill set to which McAfee has grown accustomed. Dean Culpepper’s successor will be stepping into the shoes of a legend. (I hear Alan wears 16s.)