Papers by David Chalcraft
Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts, 2021
The story of Ehud, and his assassination of the Moabite King Eglon (Judges 3: 12–30), continues t... more The story of Ehud, and his assassination of the Moabite King Eglon (Judges 3: 12–30), continues to entertain readers and hearers alike. The story also perplexes, largely on moral grounds. This paper utilises the sociology of Erving Goffman and insights from disability studies to re-tell the story of Ehud as someone who is doubly stigmatised. That is, Ehud not only carriers the stigma of left-handedness but is also disabled; moreover, the Moabite King is also disabled/immobile because of his obesity. I take the biblical text as conveying that Ehud is left-handed by necessity given the impairment in his right hand/arm. Adopting a social model of disability, I apply Goffman’s account of the management of spoiled identity developed in his book Stigma (1963) to explore how the narrative depicts various dimensions of social stigma and Ehud’s moral career as he attempts to manage his spoiled identity and the degrees of societal acceptance and rejection he experiences in different contexts....
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religious Education in the Global South, 2022
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religious Education in the Global South presents new comparative persp... more The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religious Education in the Global South presents new comparative perspectives on Religious Education (RE) across the global south. Including 24 chapters written by scholars from the Global North and South, this is the first authoritative reference work on the subject. The handbook is thematically organised into eight sections. The first five sections deal with provision, response to changes in contemporary society, decolonising RE, young people and RE, and perspectives on RE teachers. The last three sections cover RE in higher education, challenges and opportunities for RE and, finally comparative perspectives on RE in the Global South. The term ‘Global South’ is used here primarily to signify the deep economic divide with the global north but the term is also examined in historical, geographical, political, social and cultural terms, including the indelible influence of religion in all four broadly defined regions. Exploring RE from local, cross-national ...
The Protestant Ethic Debate
The Protestant Ethic Debate
Matthew Henry: The Bible, Prayer, and Piety
Collected here in one volume are the best examples of social-scientific Old Testament criticism f... more Collected here in one volume are the best examples of social-scientific Old Testament criticism from the last 20 years of the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, an essential introduction to the field. Divided into six sections, this volume presents essays on the central methodological and theoretical issues as well as a series of applications to the study of early Israelite social forms, the formal and informal regulation of life, the distribution of power and justice, and the performance of social roles and the process of group formation. The volume brings home how indispensable a social-science approach is for the reconstruction of the Israelite social world-not to say our own worlds and productions as well, enbodying the finest traditions of classical social theory and the interface with exciting new developments.
Anthropology and Biblical Studies
Introduction: Sectarianism in Early Judaism: Sociological Advances? Some Critical Sociological Re... more Introduction: Sectarianism in Early Judaism: Sociological Advances? Some Critical Sociological Reflections David J. Chalcraft Part One: Max Weber on Sects and Voluntary Associations with Specific Reference to Second Temple Judaism David J. Chalcraft 1.
Max Weber and the Culture of Anarchy, 1999
Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts and Contemporary Worlds, 2014
This article explores aspects of the biblical literacy of two classical sociologists, Max Weber (... more This article explores aspects of the biblical literacy of two classical sociologists, Max Weber (1864–1920) and William Dubois (1868–1963) and after discussing two examples in some depth and drawing comparisons, briefly reflects on what kinds of biblical literacy is required of contemporary readers of Weber and Dubois, if they are to make sense of their sociology given the continuing legacy of the Bible in their work. The examples of their use of biblical ideas, themes and figures are taken from Weber’s lectures, “Politics as a Vocation and Science as a Vocation,” and from Dubois’ The Souls of Black Folk. It is argued that whilst Weber uses biblical quotation to share with his audience a situation with some sociological analogy to their own case, Dubois utilises the continuing authority of the Bible amongst his White and Black audiences to affect social change and to provide an identity and purpose for Black folk post emancipation in the American South.
Max Weber's Replies to His Critics, 1907-1910, 2001
Max Weber's Replies to His Critics, 1907-1910, 2001
Social-scientific ways of knowing, thinking and being are inescapable; in the contemporary world ... more Social-scientific ways of knowing, thinking and being are inescapable; in the contemporary world a social-scientific perspective seems less an option than an unavoidable constituent of the public and private imagination. The social sciences play a central role in the self-understandings of contemporary societies and in the lives of their citizens. Biblical studies has been dramatically impacted by these intellectual developments. This book brings together new essays that reflect on the current state of social-scientific and cultural studies approaches in biblical studies, critically review the theoretical and methodological issues and explore the value of these approaches through a number of fresh substantive applications. Methods, Theories, Imagination is divided into five sections: 1. Methods, Perspectives and Theory (James G. Crossley, Istvan Czachesz, Linda A. Dietch, Amy Erickson), 2. Studies in the Sociology of Deviance (Outi Lehtipuu, Mark Finney), 3. Social Psychology and Tr...
Max Weber's Replies to His Critics, 1907-1910, 2001
The Protestant Ethic Debate, 2001
Max Weber's "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" continues to be one... more Max Weber's "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" continues to be one of the most influential texts in the sociology of modern Western societies. Although Weber never produced the further essays with which he intended to extend the study, he did complete four lengthy Replies to reviews of the text by two German historians. Written between 1907 and 1910, the Replies offer a fascinating insight into Weber's intentions in the original study, and the present volume is the first complete translation of all four Replies in English.
Sociology, 1993
This article seeks to show the ways in which an addition made to the second edition of The Protes... more This article seeks to show the ways in which an addition made to the second edition of The Protestant Ethic can be illuminated by placing it in the context of Weber's personal life and how that text can also illuminate various personal concerns and relationships that characterised Weber's life, in particular during his last year alive in Munich. Aspects of Weber's personal life are explored making use of Marianne Weber's account of her husband's life, although her account is subjected to some critical analysis. It is shown that key concerns in Weber's life at this time included death, family responsibilities and eroticism. The addition (which basically involves the quotation of Siegmund's answer to Brünnhilde - the herald of death in Wagner's opera Die Walküre), relates to these themes, and in the context of The Protestant Ethic opens up a whole range of intertextual affinites which serve to highlight the way in which Weber drew on a cultural heritage...
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Papers by David Chalcraft