Stories in a Strange Land: Biblical Narratives about Assimilation and Religious Identity
Navn på bevillingshaver
Frederik Poulsen
Institution
University of Copenhagen
Beløb
DKK 1,122,000
År
2017
Bevillingstype
Reintegration Fellowships
Hvad?
The title of my postdoctoral project is "Stories in a Strange Land: Biblical Narratives about Assimilation and Religious Identity". It concerns issues of migration and religious belonging in the Bible. I will analyse four stories about Jews living among foreigners (Joseph, Esther, Daniel, Tobit) and investigate how the ancient texts envision religious life abroad and what strategies they reflect for living in different worlds simultaneously without being at home in any of them.
Hvorfor?
Issues of migration and religious belonging were just as important in the ancient world as they are now. By mapping attitudes towards faith in foreign lands in the ancient world I hope to shed light on the experiences of religious minorities today.
Hvordan?
My ambition is to write four articles, one on each of the four biblical narratives. Furthermore, I hope to develop these articles into a concise monograph which provides a resource for understanding the experiences of religious minorities today. To get a deeper understanding of life in the diaspora, I will participate in and chair sessions at international conferences. In particular, I plan to arrange a seminar with experts on ancient and aspects of diasporic existence which shall track experiences and textual representations from the Bible to the present. Finally, I hope to secure a research stay at the University of Virginia to work closely together with Prof. M. A. Halvorson-Taylor, a leading expert in Bible and diaspora studies.