Peter Lanfer

Peter Lanfer is returning again this Winter Term! Professor Lanfer has been a visiting lecturer at Dartmouth since 2010, having taught religion classes during 9 different terms on campus. He consistently recieves student praise for engaging lectures, phenomenal classroom environment, mentorship and being available outside of the classroom. As a Dartmouth grad, he is well aware of the rigors and challenges of the D-plan, and the unique experiences available in and around Hanover. Beyond the classroom, he is actively engaged with students as an alumni advisor for the a Capella group the Brovertones and as well as the senior society Fire & Skoal.  Professor Lanfer's love of ancient manuscripts began as undergraduate religion major at Dartmouth (B.A. 1998), where he wrote a thesis on biblical interpretation in apocalyptic Judaism and early Christianity with Professors Susan Ackerman and Ehud Benor. He completed his graduate studies at Yale (M.A.R. 2004) and UCLA (Ph.D. 2010). Prof. Lanfer's work examines the cultural role of sacred literature in the dynamic expressions of Jewish and Christian communities in the Greek and Roman empires. He is currently exploring the theological challenges presented by morally suspect texts in the Hebrew Bible in his forthcoming manuscript Reading Sacredness in the Badly Behaving Bible. Prof. Lanfer teaches courses on Jewish and Christian histories and literatures including the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish and Christian Pseudepigrapha, Rabbinic literature, Jewish magic and mysticism, apocalyptic and messianic movements in antiquity, as well as the archaeology and history of Jerusalem and Israel.