Sovereignty and Secularization (RS 3CC3)
Winter 2009

TEXT PREPARATION 2

Assignment due in class on February 10* from members of Group 2

*Since part of the value of the text preparation assignment is that it will prepare you to be an active participant in tutorial and in class, it may only be submitted in class on the day it is due.  If you have to miss that day's class, please contact the instructor or TA to make alternate arrangements.

Please read: 

Max Weber, "Prophet" from Economy and Society (ed. Roth/Wittich, vol. 1: 439-51) [selection in Coursepack 1 / book on reserve]

Book of Jeremiah, chaps. 21–29

Max Weber, Ancient Judaism (1917-19; published posthumously 1921), chap. XI, pp. 267-96 [selection in Coursepack 1, plus missing notes on pp. 455-56 to be distributed separately/ book on reserve]

and address the following two questions in 3-4 well-written paragraphs (spanning 2-3 pages), with detailed reference to the texts. Since this is your first reading of these texts, and since we have not yet discussed them in class, you are not being asked to supply definitive answers but preliminary, thoughtful responses based on attentive reading. Your answers may also include 1-2 important questions raised by your reading for further discussion.  

1. 
In the "Prophet" chapter in Economy and Society, Weber finds that the "ethical type" of prophecy is most typical of ancient Near Eastern civilizations.  What phenomena does Weber associate with this type of prophecy, which were according to him prevalent in the Near East? (1 paragraph)

2. 
In the selection from Ancient Judaism, what are some of the characteristics that Weber ascribes to the prophets of the Hebrew Bible as political actors or in relationship with political circumstances? (2-3 paragraphs)

 

In preparing this assignment, please follow the citation guidelines in 

For parenthetical page references to the Weber readings, please use the following abbreviations:

 

Your assignment should be printed double-spaced and with one-inch margins, using a 10-12-point font.  Please number and staple the pages you hand in. 

Please keep a copy of your assignment to refer to in our class discussion.

 

 

posted/distributed February 3, 2009