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Robert N. Bellah

ロバート・N・ベラ

Robāto N. Beraha

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1927-02-23 （Altus, Oklahoma, U.S.）
Died
2013-07-30 （Oakland, California, U.S.） age 86
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
Episcopalian (Anglo‑Catholic tradition)
Residence History
Altus, Oklahoma (birthplace) → Los Angeles (grew up) → Montreal (postdoctoral fellowship) → Cambridge, Massachusetts (Harvard) → Berkeley, California (professional)

Career

Occupations
Sociologist, Educator, Author
Active Years
1950-2013
Affiliations
Harvard University (faculty), McGill University (postdoctoral fellowship), University of California, Berkeley (Elliott/Ford Professor of Sociology)
Memberships
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society
Influenced By
Merlin Donald, Émile Durkheim, Karl Jaspers, Charles Taylor, Paul Tillich, Max Weber
Influenced
Marc Andrus, Robert Wuthnow, Jeffrey C. Alexander (doctoral student)

Education

Harvard College, Harvard University
Social Relations / Concentration in Social Anthropology
Degree: BA (summa cum laude)
Period: 1946–1950
Year of Graduation: 1950
Country: United States
Graduated summa cum laude; undergraduate honors thesis won the Phi Beta Kappa Prize and was later published.
Harvard University
Joint program in Sociology and Far East Languages / Doctoral studies
Degree: PhD
Period: 1950–1955
Year of Graduation: 1955
Country: United States
PhD dissertation: 'Religion and Society in Tokugawa Japan' (published as Tokugawa Religion in 1957).
McGill University (Institute of Islamic Studies)
Postdoctoral fellowship
Period: 1954–1956
Country: Canada
Postdoctoral fellowship at McGill during a period when he spent time in Canada amid McCarthy-era pressures.

Awards

Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1967
Organization: American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Result: 選出
Elected to the American Philosophical Society
1996
Organization: American Philosophical Society
Result: 選出
National Humanities Medal
2000
Organization: United States (awarded by the President)
Result: 受賞
American Academy of Religion Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion
2007
Organization: American Academy of Religion
Result: 受賞
ASA Section on Sociology of Religion Distinguished Book Award
2011
Work: Religion in Human Evolution
Category: 書籍賞
Organization: American Sociological Association (Section on Sociology of Religion)
Result: 受賞
Honorary doctorate, Max Weber Centre, University of Erfurt
2008
Organization: University of Erfurt (Max Weber Centre)
Result: 授与

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Tokugawa Religion: The Values of Pre-Industrial Japan

1957 Sociology / Religious studies

Based on his doctoral research, this study examines religion and social values in Tokugawa Japan, applying Weberian perspectives to Japan.

Social functions of religionModernization and religion

The Broken Covenant

1975 Sociology

Analysis of the crisis and trials of American civil religion.

American civil religionReligion and the public sphere

Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life

1985 Sociology / Cultural studies

Discusses the tension between American individualism and the desire for community, and religion's role in the common good.

IndividualismCommunityReligion and the common good

Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age

2011 Religious studies / Comparative history

A major work tracing the biological and cultural origins of religion and the interplay between religion and society across deep history.

Evolution of religionInteraction of biology and cultureAxial Age

The Axial Age and Its Consequences

2012 History of ideas / Religious studies

An edited volume examining the significance and consequences of the Axial Age.

Axial AgeHistory of religionIntellectual history

Bibliography

  • Tokugawa Religion: The Values of Pre-Industrial Japan (1957)
  • The Broken Covenant: American Civil Religion in Time of Trial (1975)
  • Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (1985)
  • Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (2011)
  • The Axial Age and Its Consequences (2012)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Analytical, comparative-historical approachInterdisciplinary (bridging sociology, anthropology, religious studies)Clear, academic prose
Recurring Motifs
Tension between community and individualismAmerican civil religionEvolution and social functions of religion

Health

  • Complications following heart surgery
    2013
    Died in 2013 from complications following heart surgery.

Legacy

Robert Bellah was internationally recognized in the sociology of religion, known for his work on American civil religion and his major study of the evolution of religion. He influenced both academic debates and public understanding of community and religion.

Academic Societies

  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • American Philosophical Society

Archives

  • University of California, Berkeley archives (related materials)

Quotes

  • ...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. ...The university and the secret police were in collusion to suppress political dissent and even to persecute dissenters who had changed their minds...
    Source: The New York Review of Books ('McCarthyism at Harvard', 2005) (2005)

Trivia

  • Member of the Communist Party USA while an undergraduate (1947–1949).
  • Reached by family tragedies: eldest daughter committed suicide in 1973; a third daughter died in a car accident in 1976.
  • Coined the influential discussion of 'civil religion' in a 1967 article.
  • Was nominated for a permanent position at the Institute for Advanced Study (1972–73) but withdrew after a contentious nomination process and personal tragedy.