Robert N. Bellah facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Robert N. Bellah
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Bellah in 2008
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| Born |
Robert Neelly Bellah
February 23, 1927 |
| Died | July 30, 2013 (aged 86) Oakland, California, U.S.
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| Education | Harvard University (BA, PhD) |
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Notable work
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| Spouse(s) |
Melanie Hyman
(m. 1948; died 2010) |
| Scientific career | |
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| Thesis | Religion and Society in Tokugawa Japan (1955) |
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| Other academic advisors | David Aberle |
| Doctoral students | Jeffrey C. Alexander |
| Influences |
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Robert Neelly Bellah (February 23, 1927 – July 30, 2013) was an American sociologist. A sociologist studies how people live together in groups. He was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He was well-known around the world for his studies on the sociology of religion. This field looks at how religion affects society and how society affects religion.
Contents
Education and Early Life
Robert Bellah was a very smart student. He graduated with top honors from Harvard College in 1950. He earned a degree in social relations, focusing on how different cultures are organized. His college paper was so good it was published as a book called Apache Kinship Systems.
University Studies
Bellah continued his studies at Harvard University. He joined a special program that combined sociology with learning about East Asian languages. He earned his highest degree, a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), in 1955. His main research was about religion in Japan during the Tokugawa period. This work was published as Tokugawa Religion.
Facing Challenges
While at Harvard, Bellah was part of a student group that studied Marxism. In the 1950s, during a time called McCarthyism, people who had been involved with such groups faced pressure. Bellah was asked to name other students from his club. He refused to do so.
Because of this, Bellah and his family moved to Canada for two years. He worked at McGill University in Montreal. He later returned to Harvard after the intense pressure of McCarthyism lessened. Bellah felt that universities should protect students' freedom of thought.
Career and Key Ideas
Robert Bellah spent most of his career at the University of California at Berkeley. He became a Ford Professor of Sociology there in 1967. His ideas often focused on how important community is. This way of thinking is called communitarianism. It means believing that people thrive best when they are part of strong communities.
Understanding Religion's Role
Bellah wrote many important books. One of his most famous is Religion in Human Evolution (2011). This book explored how religion started and changed over human history. It looked at how our biology and culture shaped religious beliefs. Many scholars praised this book for its wide-ranging ideas.
Community and Individualism
Another very well-known book by Bellah is Habits of the Heart, published in 1985. In this book, he looked at how religion helps or hurts the common good in America. He suggested that Americans often feel pulled between being very independent (individualism) and wanting to be part of a group (community). He showed how this tension affects their religious beliefs and daily lives.
American Civil Religion
Bellah is also famous for a term he created: "American civil religion". He wrote about this in a 1967 article. This idea suggests that in America, there are shared beliefs and values that act almost like a religion. These beliefs are not tied to one specific church. Instead, they come from national symbols, holidays, and stories that unite people.
Personal Life
Robert Bellah was born in Altus, Oklahoma, on February 23, 1927. His father was a newspaper editor. When Robert was three, his father passed away. His mother moved the family to Los Angeles, California, where they had relatives.
He met his future wife, Melanie Hyman, in high school. They both worked on the student newspaper. They got married in 1948. Bellah served in the US Army before starting his studies at Harvard. Melanie Bellah passed away in 2010.
Robert Bellah died on July 30, 2013, in Oakland, California. He was 86 years old. He passed away due to problems after heart surgery. He was survived by his daughters, Jennifer Bellah Maguire and Hally Bellah-Guther, and five grandchildren. He was raised as a Presbyterian but later became an Episcopalian.
Works
Robert Bellah wrote or helped write many books, including:
- Tokugawa Religion: The Values of Pre-Industrial Japan (1957)
- Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-Traditional World (1970)
- The Broken Covenant: American Civil Religion in Time of Trial (1975)
- Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (1985)
- The Good Society (1991)
- Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (2011)
Awards and Honors
Robert Bellah received many awards for his important work.
- In 1967, he became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- In 1996, he was chosen to be part of the American Philosophical Society.
- President Bill Clinton gave him the National Humanities Medal in 2000. This award recognized his work in showing how important community is in American society.
- He also received awards for helping the public understand religion.
See also
- American exceptionalism
- Lifestyle enclave
- Political religion
- Sheilaism
