Rate My Professor J. Blake Couey

J. Blake Couey is Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Religion at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, where he joined the faculty in 2009. He holds a B.A. from Mercer University (1999), an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary (2002), and a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary (2009). Throughout his tenure at Gustavus Adolphus College, Couey has taken on significant administrative and leadership roles, including Faculty Associate for Research, Scholarship, and Creativity in the Kendall Center for Engaged Learning, Director of the Three Crowns Curriculum, and Director of Comparative Literature. He has also served as a presenter at the Nobel Conference, contributing to discussions on topics related to his expertise.

Couey's scholarly work centers on biblical poetry and prophetic literature, with particular attention to the Book of Isaiah and ancient Hebrew poetic techniques. His monograph, Reading the Poetry of First Isaiah: The Most Perfect Model of the Prophetic Poetry, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. He co-edited the volume Biblical Poetry and the Art of Close Reading with Elaine T. James, issued by Cambridge University Press in 2018. Key peer-reviewed articles include 'The Disabled Body Politic in Isaiah 3:1, 8' in the Journal of Biblical Literature (2014) and 'Amos vii 10-17 and Royal Attitudes Toward Prophecy in the Ancient Near East' in Vetus Testamentum (2008). Couey contributed to The Oxford Handbook of Isaiah (2020) and has presented papers such as 'Poetry, Language, and Statecraft in Isaiah 18' at the Upper Midwest Society of Biblical Literature. He co-organizes the Twin Cities Biblical Colloquium and provides expert commentaries for Working Preacher and Bible Odyssey, enhancing public understanding of biblical texts.