Peter Lampe

Peter Lampe (born 28 January 1954) is a German Protestant theologian and Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

After studies in theology, philosophy and archaeology at Bielefeld and Göttingen, Germany, and Rome, Italy, he received his Ph.D. and his Dr. habil. at the University of Bern in Switzerland with works about the social history of the Christians in the city of Rome in the first two centuries and about the concept of ecclesiastical unity in the Pauline letters. As assistant professor (“Wissenschaftlicher Assistent“), he taught at the University of Bern from 1981 on, until, in 1986, he was called to a chair of New Testament Studies at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, USA. In 1992, he took the chair of History and Archaeology of Early Christianity and Its Environment at the University of Kiel in Germany, where he also served as dean of the school of theology. In 1999, he accepted a call to the University of Heidelberg.

His works focus on the social history of early Christianity (groundbreaking studies on, for example, early Christianity in Rome in the 1st/2nd centuries, and on Paul’s correspondence with Philemon; his work also contributed decisively to the paradigm shift toward a more contextual reading of the Letter to the Romans); on the Hellenistic background of early Christianity; on Pauline studies (including rhetorical studies); on early Christian archaeology and epigraphy; as well as on methodological and hermeneutical questions. He pioneered applying constructivist categories to New Testament exegesis and hermeneutics. Furthermore, he was one of the first to explore the potential of psychological interpretation in his field.

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