Description
Book SynopsisA collection of twenty-eight of the seminal essays of Robert N. Bellah, a visionary leader in the social study of religion and lead author of the bestselling
Habits of the Heart.
Trade Review“I believe that Robert Bellah is one of the more incisive religious commentators we’ve had on the American scene in recent times. Drawing on an astounding range of literatures, he has helped us see what otherwise might not be seen. At once sociological theorist, social critic, and serious religious thinker, Bellah has blazed new trails for helping establish work in several disciplines. We are therefore extremely fortunate to have this superb collection of his work as otherwise the interconnectedness of all that Bellah has done might be lost.”—Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University
“Is it true, as some claim, that the more modern a society, the weaker our sense of the sacred? Does a sense of the sacred somehow ‘liquefy,’ as Habermas suggests, as society grows ever more ‘rational’? In this collection of brilliant and bold meditations on the works of Durkheim, Weber, Rousseau, Goffman, and others, Robert Bellah arrives at his own nuanced answers. An important and enlightening read.”—Arlie Hochschild, University of California, Berkeley
“No other scholar has had a more profound influence on my thinking than Robert Bellah. His has been a strong and challenging voice in the continuing debate about modernity’s effects on America and on the human condition. Having these important essays collected in a single volume is a valuable service. My hope is that the next generation of students and scholars will savor these essays and learn from them what it means to engage in critical reflection about the deepest quandaries of our time.”—Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University
“Robert Bellah is without question one of the leaders in the senior generation of sociologists of religion. He embodies informed spiritual inquiry and a mentality I would call ‘expansively catholic’ in the sense of ‘penetrating the dimensions of being.’ He also has a protestant outlook, manifesting an ability to be critical of entities and scholarly works he affirms.”—Martin E. Marty, University of Chicago
“
The Robert Bellah Reader brings together in a single text a selection of the writings of a thought-provoking scholar whose writings on the social study of religion currently span 55 years and over 250 items. . . .
The Robert Bellah Reader constantly provokes the reader into a reflective mode that stimulates new ways of thinking about our contemporary situation,” -- Kay Adamson * Sociology *
“
The Robert Bellah Reader demonstrates what a serious scholar can accomplish when he perceives a disciplinary identity as secondary to the pursuits of knowledge and of understanding one’s culture and society.” -- Richard C. Collins * Virginia Quarterly Review *
“
The Robert Bellah Reader is a gift to readers, offering a generous view of the scholar behind the ideas. We meet a wide-ranging thinker whose work addresses social science, historical social change, and what was once called ‘moral philosophy.’” -- D. Michael Lindsay * Commonweal *
“Bellah is truly one of today’s most powerful commentators on the social, cultural and religious meaning of modernity, in America and elsewhere. . . .
The Robert Bellah Reader is a collection of twenty-eight of Bellah’s most stimulating essays. . . . [I]t is not the breadth of Bellah’s work that is so impressive; it is rather the depth. No one can read Bellah extensively without feeling privileged to read the work of a true scholar, one who is able to combine vast learning with graceful writing.” -- Derek H. Davis * Journal of Law and Religion *
Table of ContentsPreface vii
Introduction 1
I. Comparative and Theoretical 19
1. Religious Evolution 23
2. The Five Religions of Modern Italy 51
3. To Kill and Survive or to Die and Become 81
4. Stories as Arrows: The Religious Response to Modernity 107
5. Max Weber and World-Denying Love 123
6. Durkheim and Ritual 150
7 Rousseau on Society and the Individual 181
8. The History of Habit 203
II. American Religion 221
9. Civil Religion in America 225
10. Religion and the Legitimation of the American Republic 246
11. The New Religious Consciousness and the Crisis of Modernity 265
12. The Kingdom of God in America: Language of Faith, Language of Nation, Language of Empire 285
13. Citizenship, Diversity, and the Search for the Common Good 303
14. Is There a Common American Culture? 319
15. Flaws in the Protestant Code: Theological Roots of American Individualism 333
16. The New American Empire 350
17. God and King 357
III. University and Society
18. The Ethical Aims of Social Inquiry 381
19. Class Wars and Culture Wars in the University Today 402
20. Freedom, Coercion, and Authority 410
21. The True Scholar 421
22. Education for Justice and the Common Good 434
IV. Sociology and Theology 451
23. On Being Catholic and American 457
24. Religious Pluralism and Religious Truth 474
25. Texts, Sacred and Profane 490
26. Epiphany: “Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit” 504
27. Pentecost: “Beginning in the End of Times” 510
28. All Souls Day: “The Living and the Dead in Communion” 515
Bibliography of Words by Robert N. Bellah 523
Index 542
