The University of Sheffield
Department of Biblical Studies

Professor David Chalcraft

Chair in Biblical Studies

David ChalcraftBA, MLitt, PhD

Email address: D.Chalcraft@sheffield.ac.uk

Telephone: +44 (0) 114 222 0515

Department address: Department of Biblical Studies, 45 Victoria Street, Sheffield S3 7QB

Biography

After graduating from the Department of Biblical Studies in 1985, David went on to study sociology at Oxford University, and prepared a Master of Letter’s thesis under the supervision of Dr. Bryan Wilson of All Souls. David gained his PhD from the University of Derby: "Reading Max Weber and Developing Weberian Sociology with specific Reference to Ancient Biblical Social Worlds". He held the Chair in Classical Sociology at the University of Derby before returning to Sheffield in 2011, taking up the Chair of Biblical Studies and serving as Head of Department from 2011-2013.

Research interests

His research interests revolve around the history of, and method in, biblical studies and especially the interfaces of biblical studies and the social sciences, and include the study of the Bible, culture and society in South East Asia and Polynesia/Oceania, and the comparative ethnography of contemporary Bible use. David leads modules on ‘Max Weber Studies’ and ‘The Sociology and Anthropology of Religion’.

David currently supervises 7 PhD students working on a range of related topics, including the analysis of the meaning and reception of Numbers 13 from the perspective of the social theory of Utopia; an ethnography of the reading of the Bible amongst South Derbyshire Miners; the theological unity of the book of Obadiah; The Englishing of the Hebrew Bible from Coverdale to the King James version, with specific reference to the Book of Ruth; a sociological study of Disabled Christians and their interaction with biblical texts; an investigation of the concept of the first born in the Patriarchal Narratives and cultural traditions in Kerala, India; and a sociological study of the Baha’i tradition and its concept of the ‘word of God’.

Selected publications

Other professional activities

David is member of The Royal Anthropological Institute and is the convenor of the European Association of Biblical Studies’ Bible and Sociology research unit and of the Society for Biblical Literature section, The Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. David is the founding editor of the Ashgate series, Rethinking Classical Sociology, serves on the editorial Board of Max Weber Studies, and has recently founded the book series with Phoenix Press, The Bible and the Social Sciences. He is the Principal Investigator on a three year (2013-2016) British Academy International Mobility and Partnership grant, in partnership with United Theological College, Bangalore, which explores the ways in which social, cultural and postcolonial contexts impact on the vocation of the biblical scholar in the modern global world and ways in which readers engage with biblical texts in a variety of social settings. The collaborative project also develops appropriate methodological tools for ethnographic studies of engagement with biblical texts in comparative settings. In the final year of the project the discussions will also include colleagues from Burma and Malaysia.

David is on study leave for Autumn Semester 2013-14 completing a book, The Bible and the Sociological Imagination (Bloomsbury) and a introductory text on Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism for Routledge. During this time he will also be in China as Distinguished Visiting Professor at Zhejiang University in Hangzou.