Frederik Poulsen

Frederik Poulsen

Associate Professor

Frederik Poulsen (b. 1984) is Associate Professor of the Old Testament at the Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen. PhD (2014) and dr.theol. (2019) on a dissertation on exile in the book of Isaiah.

His research interests include migration and diaspora in the Bible, the prophetic literature, biblical theology and reception. He has worked as a visiting researcher in Oxford, Jerusalem, Bonn and at Yale University.

In 2020, he was awarded two prestigious prices: The Nils Klim Prize and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters' Silver Medal. In 2021: Sapere Aude: DFF-Research Leader.

He is PI of the project "Divergent Views of Diaspora in Ancient Judaism" about the earliest Judean communities outside of Palestine.

In 2022 he published a popular book about Josef and his brothers in Genesis (Vandkunsten). In 2023 he published a book about Ezra-Nehemiah (Eksistensen) and was co-editor of a volume about the Bible and the Qur'an (Eksistensen Akademisk).

For an extended presentation, see The 2020 Nils Klim Converstation (youtube).

Primary fields of research

1) Exile as a literary and theological theme in the Bible; religious identity in the Diaspora; see e.g. my doctoral dissertation [Habilitation] The Black Hole in Isaiah: A Study of Exile as a Literary Theme (Mohr Siebeck, 2019). I am co-editor of the volume Images of Exile in the Prophetic Literature (Mohr Siebeck; 2019).

2) Biblical theology, including the concept of canon, the Septuagint, and the relationship between the Old and New Testaments; see e.g. my PhD dissertation God, His Servant, and the Nations in Isaiah 42:1-9: Biblical Theological Reflections after Brevard S. Childs and Hans Hübner (Mohr Siebeck, 2014).

3) The Old Testament prophets and their theology, especially the book of Isaiah, see e.g. my book Representing Zion: Judgement and Salvation in the Old Testament (Routledge, 2015). See also my contribution to the textbook Fire indgange til gammeltestamentlig teologi (Det Teologiske Fakultet, 2016).

4) The Old Testament as Christian Scripture, especially the biblical readings in church service. I am co-editor of the book Bibelen i gudstjenesten (Det Teologiske Fakultet, 2015).

Current research

At present, I work on a series of different issues: the earliest Judean communities in Egypt and Mesopotamia (especially in extrabiblical sources), return migration in the Old Testament, and migration/diaspora in the book of Esther.

From August 2022 until January 2026, I am PI of the research project "Divergent Views of Diaspora in Ancient Judaism", sponsored by the Independent Research Fund Denmark and its Sapere Aude programme.

From 2018 to 2021, I worked on the individual research project "Stories in a Strange Land: Biblical Narratives about Assimilation and Religious Identity", supported by the Carlsberg Foundation. Among the main results are a handful of articles and papers on the issue of living abroad in the Joseph Story, the book of Esther, and the book of Daniel 

From 2015-2017 I worked on the individual research project "Images of Exile", sponsored by the Independent Research Fund Denmark and its Sapere Aude programme (see announcement). The main outcome of the project is a monograph on exile in the book of Isaiah and an edited volume of conference papers about images of exile in the prophetic books of the Bible.

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