Robert N. Bellah

Robert Neelly Bellah, born February 23, 1927, in Altus, Oklahoma, United States, is an American sociologist, now the Elliott Professor of Sociology, Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.

Academic career

Bellah is best known for his work related to "American civil religion" (a term he used in a 1967 article). [cite journal
first =Robert Neelly
last =Bellah year =1967 | month =Winter | title =Civil Religion in America
journal =Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
volume =96 | issue =1 | pages =1–21
url =http://web.archive.org/web/20050306124338/http://www.robertbellah.com/articles_5.htm From the issue entitled "Religion in America."] He is also known for his 1985 book "Habits of the Heart", how religion contributes to and detracts from America's common good; and as a sociologist who studies religious and moral issues and their connection to society.

Bellah received a B.A. degree from Harvard University in 1950, and a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1955. He was a student of Talcott Parsons, sociologist at Harvard. While an undergraduate at Harvard, he was a member of the Communist Party USA and chairman of the John Reed Club, "a recognized student organization concerned with the study of Marxism." Dean McGeorge Bundy threatened to withdraw his fellowship if he did not provide the names of his former associates. [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8431 nybooks.com] ]

He served in various positions at Harvard from 1955 until 1967 when he moved to the University of California at Berkeley as the Ford Professor of Sociology. He spent the remainder of his career at Berkeley.

His political views are often classified as communitarian.

Works

He is author, editor, co-author, or co-editor of the following books:
* "Tokugawa Religion: The Values of Pre-Industrial Japan" (1957)
* "Religion and Progress in Modern Asia" (1965)
* "Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-Traditional World" (1970)
* "Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society" (1973)
* "The Broken Covenant: American Civil Religion in Time of Trial" (1975)
* "The New Religious Consciousness" (1976)
* "Varieties of Civil Religion" (1980)
* "Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life" (1985)
* "Uncivil Religion: Interreligious Hostility in America" (1987)
* "The Good Society" (1991) cite web
last = Andre
first = Claire
coauthors = Manuel Velasquez
title =Creating the Good Society
work = Santa Clara University
url = http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v5n1/homepage.html
accessdate=2008-05-05 "The social problems confronting us today, the authors argue, are largely the result of failures of our institutions, and our response, largely the result of our failure to realize the degree to which our lives are shaped by institutional forces and the degree to which we, as a democratic society, can shape these forces for the better." ]
* "Imagining Japan: The Japanese Tradition and its Modern Interpretation" (2003)
* "The Robert Bellah Reader" (2006)

Awards and honors

He received the National Humanities Medal in 2000 from President Bill Clinton, in part for "his efforts to illuminate the importance of community in American society."

Notes

ee also

*American civil religion

External links

* [http://www.robertbellah.com/ Robert Bellah's Official website]
* [http://www.robertbellah.com/biography.html Biographical statement on Bellah's website]
* [http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2006/10/26_Bellah.shtml Recent Biographical Article]
* [http://www.ssrc.org/blogs/immanent_frame/ The Immanent Frame] a blog with posts by Bellah, Charles Taylor (philosopher), and others