Professor Samuel Rubenson was born in Ethiopia to Swedish parents. He obtained his doctoral degree from Lund University in 1990. He has taught at Lund University since 1982 and at the Stockholm School of Theology (University College Stockholm) since 2018. He has been a visiting professor at Central European University, Budapest; the University of Oslo; the University of Bergen; Aarhus University and Kiel University.
His main research area is early Christianity, primarily the rise of monasticism and its relation to the classical cultural heritage. He is also interested in Oriental Christianity, mainly the medieval and modern history of the Coptic and Ethiopian Churches.
Professor Rubenson is an ordained priest in the Church of Sweden and an expert adviser to the Archbishop on the Oriental Orthodox Churches.