Dr. Lanta Davis

Associate Professor of Humanities and Literature

Lanta Davis grew up in small town, South Dakota, where two of her primary interests were reading lots of books and harassing her Sunday School teachers to answer theological questions.  While working on her B.A. in English at South Dakota State University, she happily realized that these two interests could be combined.  She continued her education at Sioux Falls Seminary, where she studied Christian Heritage and Thought and earned an M.A. in Bible and Theology, and then at Baylor University, where she graduated in 2013 with an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Religion and Literature.

She approaches literature as a kind of beautiful, artistic mirror that can help us understand complex truths, and is particularly interested in studying sacraments and rituals within literature. Lanta has, for instance, published on topics such as lamentation in Puritan captivity narratives and confession in postmodern literature, and she also plans a series of articles studying the role of religious art in twentieth-century literature.  Though she primarily researches more contemporary literature, she is especially passionate about the classics of the Christian imagination, and believes the world would be a much better place if everyone would carefully read Augustine’s Confessions, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.  

Lanta enjoys traveling and adventuring with her husband, Vince, admiring the beauty of Midwest sunsets and fireflies, going to museums, and watching movies.  She also humbly volunteers to act as judge of any and all dessert competitions.