The Paul Tillich Lecture
[
http://www.memorialchurch.harvard.edu/images/robert_bellah.jpg]
��Paul Tillich and the Challenge of
Modernity��<http://www.memorialchurch.harvard.edu/seasonal.php?cid=4&…
Monday, May 6, 5:30 p.m.
in the Memorial Church
Free and open to the public
Robert N. Bellah
Elliott Professor of Sociology, Emeritus
University of California
Berkeley, California
www.robertbellah.com<http://www.robertbellah.com/index.html>
Robert N. Bellah is one of this country��s most eminent and influential sociologists,
internationally renowned for his work in sociological theory, for his studies of diverse
cultures and societies, and especially for his studies of American society, its ethics,
politics and religion. Professor Bellah received his two academic degrees at Harvard, the
A.B. in social anthropology, the Ph.D. in Sociology and Far Eastern Languages (1955). Both
his undergraduate honors thesis and his doctoral dissertation were published by the
Harvard University Press. For two years a post-doctoral Research Associate in Islamic
Studies at McGill University, Bellah returned to teach at Harvard (1957�C1967), becoming
tenured as Professor of Sociology. A colleague for five of University Professor Tillich��s
seven Harvard years, on November 4, 1965 with President Nathan M. Pusey he was one of six
distinguished faculty to speak at Tillich��s memorial service. In 1967 Bellah moved to
Berkeley where for the next three decades he was the Ford Professor of Sociology. Bellah
has written and lectured widely on ��American Civil Religion,�� a concept he introduced.
Among his notable books are Beyond Belief, The Broken Covenant, Habits of the Heart, and
The Good Society (both collaborative), books which ��shape the discipline.�� In 2000
President Clinton awarded him the National Humanities Medal and in 2007 he received the
American Academy of Religion Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of
Religion. Professor Bellah��s magisterial Religion in Human Evolution: From the
Paleolithic to the Axial Age (2011) has been called ��the most important systematic and
historical treatment of religion since Hegel, Durkheim, and Weber.�� In it, following
Emile Durkheim and Max Weber, he names Tillich one of his ��three great teachers.�� He is
currently writing a book on modernity, the encompassing direction of his life��s work.
Professor Bellah will be introduced by Noah Feldman, Bemis Professor of International Law,
Harvard Law School, and Member, Faculty Committee on Religion.
Kate Bowen
The Committee on the Study of Religion, Harvard University
12 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138
www.studyofreligion.fas.harvard.edu<http://www.studyofreligion.fas.harva…
csrel@fas.harvard.edu<mailto:csrel@fas.harvard.edu>
617-495-5781