Robert N. Bellah is Elliott Professor of Sociology Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley.  He was educated at Harvard University, receiving the B.A. in 1950 and the Ph.D. in 1955. He began teaching at Harvard in 1957 and left there as Professor of Sociology in 1967 when he moved to Berkeley.  He served from 1967 to 1997 as UC Berkeley Ford Professor of Sociology where, from 1968 to 1974, he also chaired the Center for Japanese and Korean Studies. 

Professor Bellah is the author and editor of several essays and books. His two most influential articles are "Civil Religion in America" (1967) and "Religious Evolution" (1964) the latter of which he is currently transforming into a book. His books include Tokugawa Religion, Beyond Belief, The Broken Covenant, The New Religious Consciousness, and Varieties of Civil Religion and Uncivil Religion: Interreligious Hostility in America. In 1985, the University of California Press published the widely discussed Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (paperback, Harper and Row), a cultural analysis of American society Professor Bellah wrote in collaboration with Richard Madsen, William Sullivan, Ann Swidler and Steven Tipton. In 1991, Alfred A. Knopf published The Good Society, written by the same five authors as Habits of the Heart.  In 1996, the University of California Press published a new paperback edition of Habits of the Heart, with a new introduction by the authors entitled "A House Divided". 

On December 20, 2000, the highly acclaimed educator 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."

An intellectual autobiography can be found on pages xi-xxi of "Beyond Belief" (1970).  An update of this autobiography may be found in the article "Finding the Church:  Post-Traditional Discipleship" which was originally published as part of The Christian Century "How My Mind Has Changed" series.  

View Robert Bellah's Vita