Robert Bellah

Robert Bellah

Robert Bellah (1927–2013) was an American sociologist and the Elliott Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was internationally known for his work related to the sociology of religion.

He was married to Melanie Hyman.

Life story

Robert Bellah graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College with a B.A. in social anthropology in 1950. His undergraduate honors thesis on “Apache Kinship Systems” won the Phi Beta Kappa Prize and was published by the Harvard University Press. In 1955, he received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Sociology and Far Eastern Languages and published his doctoral dissertation, Tokugawa Religion, in 1957. After two years of postdoctoral work in Islamic Studies at McGill University in Montreal, he began teaching at Harvard in 1957 and left 10 years later as Professor of Sociology to move to the University of California, Berkeley. From 1967 to 1997, he served as Ford Professor of Sociology.

Other works include Beyond Belief, Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society, The Broken Covenant, The New Religious Consciousness, Varieties of Civil Religion, Uncivil Religion, Imagining Japan and, most recently, The Robert Bellah Reader. The latter reflects his work as a whole and the overall direction of his life in scholarship “to understand the meaning of modernity.”

Continuing concerns already developed in part in “Civil Religion in America” and The Broken Covenant, led to a book Bellah co-authored with Richard Madsen, William Sullivan, Ann Swidler and Steven Tipton. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life published by the University of California Press in 1985. The same group wrote The Good Society, an institutional analysis of American society, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1991.

On December 20, 2000, Bellah received the United States National Humanities Medal. The citation, which President William Jefferson Clinton signed, reads:

The President of the United States of America awards this National Humanities Medal to Robert N. Bellah for his efforts to illuminate the importance of community in American society. A distinguished sociologist and educator, he has raised our awareness of the values that are at the core of our democratic institutions and of the dangers of individualism unchecked by social responsibility.

In July 2008, Bellah and Professor Hans Joas, who holds appointments in both the University of Chicago and Freiburg University in Germany, organized a conference at the Max Weber Center of the University of Erfurt on “The Axial Age and Its Consequences for Subsequent History and the Present,” attended by a distinguished group of international scholars interested in comparative history and sociology. At the conclusion of the conference, the University of Erfurt awarded Bellah an honorary degree. Harvard University Press published the proceedings of this conference as The Axial Age and Its Consequences in 2012.

In September of 2011 the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press published Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age, the result of Bellah’s lifetime interest in the evolution of religion and thirteen years of work on this volume.

"Religion in a Secular City: Essays in Honor of Harvey Cox"

"Religion in a Secular City: Essays in Honor of Harvey Cox", October 1, 2001 by Arvind Sharma (Author).

Harvey Cox burst onto the religious-publishing scene in 1962 with his provocative book, The Secular City. His assertions about the consequences of the modern secular world for religion changed forever the way that theologians and clergy approached their tasks of God-talk in late modernity. Always prescient about the religious scene, Cox virtually predicted the "turn east" that many American religious seekers took in the late '60s and early '70s. His books on world religions (Many Mansions), Pentecostalism (Fire from Heaven), and fundamentalism and liberation theology (Religion in the Secular City) have all provided trenchant commentary on the changing face of American religion. In this exciting collection of twenty essays, Sharma and his contributors honor Cox's seminal contributions to the study of religion. The first section of the book includes essays on Cox's life and work at Harvard, where he is Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity, and his work as a liberation theologian in the Third World.

The second section features theologians such as Leonardo Boff, James Cone, Hans Kung, Jurgen Moltmann, and Richard L. Rubenstein, who use Cox's themes of interreligious dialogue, grassroots theology, and religion and secularization as the starting points for their own essays on these themes. Contributors to the volume include: Cornel West, Harvard University; Arvind Sharma, McGill University; Robert McAfee Brown, Emeritus, Pacific School of Religion; John C. Cort, Nahant, Massachusetts; Jorge Pixley, Seminario Teológico Buatista, Managua, Nicaragua; Rodney Peterson, Boston Theological Institute; Victor Wan-Tatah, Youngstown State University; Frank D. Macchia, Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God; William Hamilton, Sarasota, Florida; Robert Bellah, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley; Eldin Villafane, CUTEEP, Boston; Jurgen Moltmann, Tübingen; Hans Küng, Tübingen; James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary; Leonardo Boff, Brazil; Margaret Guider, Weston Jesuit School of Theology; Arthur Green, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Satianathan Clarke, United Theological College, Bangalore; Richard L. Rubenstein, University of Bridgeport; Iain Maclean, James Madison University; William Martin, Rice University; Anne Foerst, MIT; and Elinor W. Gadon, Institute of Integral Studies. Arvind Sharma is Bicks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University in Montreal and the editor of A Dome of Many Colors, published by Trinity Press International.

"One Electorate under God?"

"One Electorate under God?: A Dialogue on Religion and American Politics"

Edited by E. J. Dionne, Jean Bethke Elshtain, and Kayla Meltzer Drogosz, June 14, 2004.

The United States has been described as a nation with the soul of a church. Religion is discussed more explicitly and more urgently in American politics than in the public debates of any other wealthy democracy. It is certain to play an important role in the elections of 2004. Yet debates over religion and politics are often narrow and highly partisan, although the questions at hand demand a broader and more civil discussion. One Electorate under God? widens the dialogue by bringing together in one volume some of the most influential voices in American intellectual and political life.

This book draws on a public debate between former New York governor Mario Cuomo and Indiana congressman Mark Souder, who discuss how their respective faith convictions have been both shaped by and reflected in their careers as public servants. This discussion, in turn, prompted commentary by a diverse group of scholars, politicians, journalists, and religious leaders who are engaged simultaneously in the religious and policy realms. Each contributor offers insights on how political leaders and religious convictions shape our politics. One Electorate under God arises from the idea that public deliberation is more honest—and more democratic—when officials are open and reflective about the interactions between their religious convictions and their commitments in the secular realm.

This volume—the first of its kind—seeks to promote a greater understanding of American thinking about faith and public office in a pluralistic society. Contributors include Joanna Adams, Azizah Al-Hibri, Doug Bandow, Michael Barone, Gary Bauer, Robert Bellah, David Brooks, Harvey Cox, Michael Cromartie, John Dilulio Jr., Terry Eastland, Robert Edgar, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Richard Wightman Fox, William Galston, Robert George, Andrew Greeley, John Green, Anna Greenberg, Susannah Heschel, Representative Amo Houghton (R-New York), Michael Kazin, Martha Minow, Stephen Monsma, Mark Noll, Rabbi David Novak, Ramesh Ponnuru, Representative David Price (D-North Carolina), Jeffrey Rosen, Cheryl Sanders, Ronald Sider, Jim Skillen, Matthew Spalding, Jeffrey Stout, John Sweeney, Roberto Suro, Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, Jim Towey, Doug Tanner, Mark Warren, Alan Wolfe, and Andrew Young.

New Oxford Review

From an advertisement for New Oxford Review in Democratic Left September/October 1991.

An ecumenical monthly edited by lay Catholics, we've been characterized by George Will as " splendid," by the University of Chicago's Martin E. Marty as "lively," by the Los Angeles Times as " influential," by Newsweek as "thoughtful and often cheeky," by Utne Reader as "surprisingly original," by Library Journal as "brilliant," and by Christopher Derrick, England's foremost Catholic apologist, as " by far the best Catholic magazine in the English-speaking world."

We publish Protestants, Catholics, Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox, Jews, and an occasional nonbeliever. Writers who've appeared in our pages include such diversely penetrating intellects as Robert Bellah, Christopher Lasch, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Daniel Bell, Robert Coles, Irving Howe, Walker Percy, Norman Lear, John Lukacs, J.M. Cameron, Henri Nouwen, Avery Dulles, Gordon Zahn, Will Campbell, Stanley Hauerwas, Richard Mouw, and Sheldon Vanauken . We bat around a wide variety of issues and defy easy ideological pigeonholing. We'll keep you on your toes!''

Associates for Religion & Intellectual Life

In the 1980s Associates for Religion & Intellectual Life Advisory Board members included Robert Bellah, Robert Coles M.D., Harvey Cox, James Forbes, Arthur Green, Ronald Sider, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Peter Steinfels, Arthur Waskow.

"Daedalus: Religion in America"

"Daedalus: Religion in America" Paperback – 1967 by Robert Bellah (Author), Daniel Callahan (Author), Harvey Cox (Author), Emil Fackenheim (Author).

"Habits of the Heart"

Habits of the Heart, With a New Preface: Individualism and Commitment in American Life Paperback – September 17, 2007 by Robert Bellah (Author), Richard Madsen (Author), William M. Sullivan (Author), Ann Swidler (Author), Steven M. Tipton (Author),

Stanford Vietnam Day

Stanford Vietnam Day May 17 1965.

Moderators and speakers:

Prof. Sidney Verba, Stanford, Prof. Gordon Craig, Prof. Milorad Drachkovitch; Prof. Leopold Haimson; Mr. Claude Buss, Stanford; John Horner; Prof. Hans Morgenthau; Robert Textor; Stanley Sheinbaum, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions; Kenneth Prewitt, Stanford; Rear Admiral Ret. USN Arnold True; Participants: James Aronson, journalist; Dennis Doolin, Stanford; Marshall Windmiller, S.F. State; Robert Bellah, Harvard; Carlton Goodlett, editor; Albert Grosser, Paris; John Mecklin, correspondent; Kenneth Mills, Stanford; Leopold Hamson; Robert Scheer, journalist Ramparts; Anatole Mazour Stanford: Sally Smaller; Robert Tucker, Princeton; Frans Schurmann, U. of C., Berkeley; Robert Mong; Lincoln Moses; Erik Erikson, Harvard; General Lewis J. West; George Solomon, Stanford; Albert Guerard; John Horner, Director, Public Affairs Bureau, State Department.

Communist Party

While an undergraduate at Harvard, Bellah was a member of the Communist Party USA from 1947 to 1949 and a chairman of the John Reed Club, "a recognized student organization concerned with the study of Marxism". During the summer of 1954, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard McGeorge Bundy, who later served as a national security adviser to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, threatened to withdraw Bellah's graduate student fellowship if he did not provide the names of his former club associates. Bellah was also interrogated by the Boston office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the same purpose. As a result, Bellah and his family spent two years in Canada, where he was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at the Islamic Institute in McGill University in Montreal. He returned to Harvard after McCarthyism declined due to the death of its main instigator senator Joseph McCarthy. Bellah afterwards wrote:

... I know from personal experience that Harvard did some terribly wrong things during the McCarthy period and that those things have never been publicly acknowledged. At its worst it came close to psychological terror against almost defenseless individuals. ... The university and the secret police were in collusion to suppress political dissent and even to persecute dissenters who had changed their minds if they were not willing to become part of the persecution