Benjamin Sommer
 Associate Professor of Religion
Director of the Crown Family Center for Jewish Studies
Faculty Fellow, Willard Residential College
Office: Crowe Hall, 1860 Campus Drive Road, 4-149
Phone: (847)491-2620
E-mail: ben.sommer@northwestern.edu
Professor Sommer specializes in the history of Israelite religion, literary approaches to the Hebrew Bible, and biblical theology. He also studies the ancient Near Eastern context of biblical texts and interpretative strategies in midrash.
Professor Sommer is currently working on several books. God's Bodies, God's Selves: Conceptions of Divinity in Ancient Israel and Its Environment will address conceptions of God's body in ancient Israel, Canaan, and Assyria, showing the roots of conflicting understandings of God in Jewish philosophy and kabbalah. Artifact or Scripture? The Jewish Bible between History and Theology will examine whether the Bible, understood as the ancient Near Eastern document it is, can be relevant for modern Jewish thought. Dr. Sommer was recently appointed the Editor of the Psalms volumes of the Jewish Publication Society Bible Commentary Series. His first book, A Prophet Reads Scripture: Allusion in Isaiah 40-66 (Stanford University Press, 1998), was awarded the Salo Wittmayer Baron Prize by the American Academy of Jewish Research. In this book Dr. Sommer analyzes how and why the poetry of the prophet known as Deutero-Isaiah echoes older biblical texts. He has published articles on literary approaches to the Hebrew Bible, the composition of the Pentateuch, biblical theology, Israelite prophecy, and Babylonian religion.
The recipient of fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Yad Hanadiv Foundation, Professor Sommer spent the 1998-1999 academic year on sabbatical at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He currently serves on the editorial board of Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History and of The Journal of Biblical Literature and as the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament General Acquisitions Editor for the Society for Biblical Literature. He frequently lectures at local synagogues and Jewish centers, as well as at churches and other community institutions.
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