Cape Fear Community College

Course Offerings: Religion

James L. Apple

A native of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, Rabbi James l. Apple graduated from the Pennsylvania State University with a B. A. in Religion.  Subsequently, he attended Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He earned the following degrees while at seminary: a Bachelor of Hebrew Letters in 1962 and a Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters in 1965.  Apple was ordained in May, 1965.  He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from HUC-JIR in 1990.

Rabbi Apple first served congregations in Concord, N.H. and Columbia, S.C.  In 1970 he became a Navy chaplain.  He retired from the Navy in 1996 after 26 years on active duty, most of which was spent with the Marine Corps.  Following his retirement from the Navy, Apple served as the rabbi of Temple of Israel, Wilmington, NC. He retired from this position in 2003.

Rabbi Apple is the author of various magazine articles dealing with drugs, marriage, American Jewish history, and life at sea as a circuit-riding chaplain.  He has taught at Coastal Carolina Community College, the University of Maryland-Far East Division, the Naval War College, and from 1996 to the present, Cape Fear Community College.  While at CFCC, he has taught Religion in America(REL 221) and Introduction to the Old Testament(REL 211).  He is a certified Master Law Enforcement Police Chaplain.

Rabbi Apple is married, has four children and seven grandchildren.

Dr. David Fourqurean, who is from Texas and California, earned his Ph.D. in Religion and Philosophy from Duke University, his M.A. in Biblical Languages from Fuller Theological Seminary and his B.A. (with highest honors) in both English Literature and Religion from the University of St. Thomas. David has enjoyed teaching college students for the last ten years in both Pennsylvania at Alvernia College and now here at CFCC. He is presently half-way through writing a 400 page book of daily readings from the best writers from Christianity and Judaism, as well as from some of the best anti-religious writers as well. For he believes H. R. Niebuhr was right to say that "the faith that burns the books of the heretics confesses its own unbelief."

For the last thirty-five years Dr. Fourqurean has loved surfing in California, Mexico, North Carolina and the Bahamas.

George Isham earned his bachelors and masters degrees from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. The B.A. was in humanities (with cognate specialties in history, religion, and philosophy) while the M.A. was in philosophy (specializing in Medieval thought). Isham subsequently earned his doctorate degree in religious studies from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary, both in New York City, New York. His doctoral dissertation was on Marxist-Christian dialogue.

For twenty-seven years Dr. Isham taught philosophy and religion courses at the Community College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas. He retired from there with the rank of Professor Emeritus and became Professor of Philosophical and Biblical Studies at Africa Nazarene University in Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa. While at ANU, Dr. Isham also served as acting Dean of Graduate Studies in Religion. Returning to the United States, Isham taught three years for the University of Phoenix before assuming his present position.
Since 1999 Dr. Isham has taught religion and philosophy courses at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina. He has developed online versions of World Religions and Philosophical Issues for the College, as well as teaching classroom sections of these and other philosophy/religion courses.