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

Life

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 early Christians in the city of Rome in the first two centuries and about the concept of unity and community in the Pauline letters. Scholarships of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung) supported his university education and PhD studies. From 1981 on he taught at the University of Bern as assistant professor ("Wissenschaftlicher Assistent") until he was called to a chair of New Testament Studies at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, USA, in 1986. 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 a chair at the University of Heidelberg. In 2005, he co-founded the Research Center for International and Interdisciplinary Theology (FIIT) at the University of Heidelberg, and in 1997 he founded the Societas Theologicum Adiuvantium in Kiel. He has been on the editorial board of international scholarly journals and book series. He is a K.St.J. (Germany), a member of PEN America/PEN International, the international Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS), the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Theologie (WGTH), and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). He is an ordained Lutheran minister and has been married to Margaret Birdsong, having two children, Daniel and Jessica.

Work

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. From 2001 to 2008, he directed annual archaeological campaigns in Phrygia, Turkey. During these interdisciplinary campaigns, together with William Tabbernee of Tulsa, numerous unknown ancient settlements were discovered and archaeologically documented. Two of them are the best candidates in the search for the identification of the two holy centers of ancient Montanism, Pepouza and Tymion. Historians such as W. Weiss, T. Gnoli, S. Destephen, M. Ritter, C.M. Robeck, T.D. Barnes, M. Mazza, and the renown classical historian and epigrapher Stephen Mitchell (2023) affirm that Lampe and his team can “claim credit for identifying the location of the Montanist centres Pepuza and Tymion". Scholars had searched for these lost sites since the 19th century. The Montanist patriarch resided at Pepouza, and the Montanists expected the heavenly Jerusalem to descend to earth at Pepouza and Tymion. In late antiquity, both places attracted crowds of pilgrims from all over the Roman Empire.

Books

Awards and Honours

In 2003, Lampe received the German Ecumenical Preaching Award (Bonn, Germany). In 2008, he was made honorary professor at the University of the Free State in South Africa. In 1987, in the United States his German book Die stadtrömischen Christen was awarded the distinction of Scholar’s Choice (significant current theological literature from abroad). National merit scholarships of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung). To mark his 65th birthday, scholars from five continents co-authored a two-volume festschrift in his honour.

About Peter Lampe