Obituaries
Eminent UC Berkeley Sociologist Robert Bellah Dies
The influential UC Berkeley sociologist of religion, Robert Bellah, died Tuesday from surgery complications, the campus announced. He was 86. He won acclaim for such books as "Habits of the Heart" and "Religion in Human Evolution."
Published Aug. 2, 2013, 7:24 p.m., updated Aug. 3, 11:35 a.m.
Robert Bellah, a UC Berkeley sociologist renowned for his work on world religions, died Tuesday at age 86 of complications related to heart surgery, the campus announced.
“Robert Bellah was a towering intellect, not just in the department – which he served so well for 30 years – but also in the discipline of sociology,” said Raka Ray, chair of sociology at UC Berkeley, who was quoted in the campus news release.
“Not only did his scholarship transform the way we think about religion, American civic life and the common good, but his teaching and mentoring shaped generations of scholars in the field,” Ray said.
The campus announcement also quoted Cal sociology Professor Ann Swidler, a colleague and student of Bellah: "He was also funny, irreverent, generous, loyal, high-minded and down-to-earth. In his person, as well as in his work, he held together what our society conspires to drive apart – the life of the intellect and the moral life. For him, reason really was the search for the good, and reason devoid of moral purpose was utterly irrational."
Swidler was one of co-authors with Bellah on one of the most influential works associated with him, the 1985 Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life.
Bellah's Religion in Human Evolution – published in 2011 when he was 84 – was his magnum opus and a "magisterial" compendium of his great knowledge, according to a review by Boston College's Alan Wolfe in the New York Times Book Review.
In 2000, the campus noted, the Harvard-educated scholar received the National Humanities Medal from President Clinton "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."
He also won numerous other awards in his long career.
Credited with coining the term "civil religion," he received acclaim for his essay, "Civil Religion in America” on the use of religious symbolism by American political figures.
Bellah, who was born in Altus, Okla., and raised in Los Angeles, left a teaching post at Harvard in 1967 to become a sociology professor at Berkeley, where he also served as chair of the sociology department and chair of the Center for Japanese and Korean Studies, according to the campus.
His other books include Tokugawa Religion (1957), The Broken Covenant (1975) and Beyond Belief (1970).
He is survived by daughters Hally Bellah-Guther of Berkeley and Jennifer Bellah Maguire of Los Angeles and five grandchildren. A memorial service is being planned, the campus said.
The Hedgehog Review published an interview with Bellah last year, and UC Berkeley published a profile of Bellah, "Of God, justice and disunited states, in 2006.
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Robert Bellah, a UC Berkeley sociologist renowned for his work on world religions, died Tuesday at age 86 of complications related to heart surgery, the campus announced.
“Robert Bellah was a towering intellect, not just in the department – which he served so well for 30 years – but also in the discipline of sociology,” said Raka Ray, chair of sociology at UC Berkeley, who was quoted in the campus news release.
“Not only did his scholarship transform the way we think about religion, American civic life and the common good, but his teaching and mentoring shaped generations of scholars in the field,” Ray said.
The campus announcement also quoted Cal sociology Professor Ann Swidler, a colleague and student of Bellah: "He was also funny, irreverent, generous, loyal, high-minded and down-to-earth. In his person, as well as in his work, he held together what our society conspires to drive apart – the life of the intellect and the moral life. For him, reason really was the search for the good, and reason devoid of moral purpose was utterly irrational."
Swidler was one of co-authors with Bellah on one of the most influential works associated with him, the 1985 Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life.
Bellah's Religion in Human Evolution – published in 2011 when he was 84 – was his magnum opus and a "magisterial" compendium of his great knowledge, according to a review by Boston College's Alan Wolfe in the New York Times Book Review.
In 2000, the campus noted, the Harvard-educated scholar received the National Humanities Medal from President Clinton "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."
He also won numerous other awards in his long career.
Credited with coining the term "civil religion," he received acclaim for his essay, "Civil Religion in America” on the use of religious symbolism by American political figures.
Bellah, who was born in Altus, Okla., and raised in Los Angeles, left a teaching post at Harvard in 1967 to become a sociology professor at Berkeley, where he also served as chair of the sociology department and chair of the Center for Japanese and Korean Studies, according to the campus.
His other books include Tokugawa Religion (1957), The Broken Covenant (1975) and Beyond Belief (1970).
He is survived by daughters Hally Bellah-Guther of Berkeley and Jennifer Bellah Maguire of Los Angeles and five grandchildren. A memorial service is being planned, the campus said.
The Hedgehog Review published an interview with Bellah last year, and UC Berkeley published a profile of Bellah, "Of God, justice and disunited states, in 2006.
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