David Weaver-Zercher

David L. Weaver-Zercher is associate professor of American religious history and chair of the Department of Biblical and Religious Studies at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in religion from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1997.

Professor Weaver-Zercher’s writing has focused on outsiders’ perspectives and portrayals of the Amish. His books in that area include The Amish in the American Imagination (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001); Writing the Amish: The Worlds of John A. Hostetler (Penn State University Press, 2005); and a co-edited volume with Diane Zimmerman Umble, The Amish and the Media (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).

Weaver-Zercher’s publications also include Vital Christianity: Spirituality, Justice, and Christian Practice, co-edited with William H. Willimon (T & T Clark, 2005). His writing has appeared in numerous journals, including Church History, Mennonite Quarterly Review, and North Carolina Historical Review.

He is married to Valerie Weaver-Zercher and is the father of three young sons.