The logic of the holy: Robert Bellah, 1927–2013
“Time in its aging course teaches all things,” wrote Aeschylus. No one learned more from it than Robert Bellah.
“Time in its aging course teaches all things,” wrote Aeschylus. No one learned more from it than Robert Bellah.
Sociologists are reputed to be masters of suspicion, and many keep their distance from religious belief and practice. Robert Bellah’s field was the sociology of religion, and the longtime University of California, Berkeley professor—who died last week—certainly knew the value of “distance” in this and all human sciences. But as he studied people of faith and their practice—whether in “Tokugawa Religion” in Japan (his doctoral dissertation subject) or in America—he discerned integrity and value in the faith(s) of many.