Bio: (1927-2013) American sociologist. Robert Bellah taught at Harvard and Berkeley Universities. Bellah is best known for studying "civil religion" in the United States. Civil religion in America has two sources - religious in the Judeo-Christian tradition and secular, which is manifested in several value systems: liberalism, republicanism, utilitarianism, and patriotism. Civil religion in America is based on the mythologizing of US history - the exodus from the old homeland, the War of Independence, the creation of a republic, the Civil War, and reunification. This civil religion is maintained by public symbols - the anthem, the annual presidential speech, as well as through secular public holidays (Independence Day, Thanksgiving). Bellah is also known for studying religion in Japan. Towards the end of his life, he published a detailed and extensive study on the influence of religion on human evolution - Religion in Human Evolution (2011).

Main works

Tokugawa Religion (1957);

Religion and Progress in Modern Asia (1965);

Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-Traditional World (1970);

The Broken Covenant: American Civil Religion in Time of Trial (1975);

The New Religious Consciousness (1976);

Varieties of Civil Religion (1980);

Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (1985);

Uncivil Religion: Interreligious Hostility in America (1987);

The Good Society (1991);

Imagining Japan: The Japanese Tradition and its Modern Interpretation (2003);

Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (2011).