Robert Neelly Bellah was born in the United States in 1927. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College with a Bachelor or Arts degree in social anthropology in 1950. In 1955, he received a PhD from Harvard University in sociology and far eastern languages and published his doctoral dissertation titled "Tokugawa Religion" in 1957.
Bellah carried out two years of postdoctoral work as a Research Associate in Islamic Studies at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ and then began teaching at Harvard in 1957. He became the Ford Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1967. Bellah is the author of numerous books including Beyond Belief, Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society, The Broken Covenant, The New Religious Consciousness, Varieties of Civil Religion, Uncivil Religion and The Robert Bellah Reader. In 2000, he received the United States National Humanities Medal.
Bellah delivered three Beatty lectures in March 1974 on the topic of "Relevance of Man's Religious Experience" titled "The Primitive Religion", "The Historic Religions" and "The Contemporary Relevance".
Listen to Robert Bellah's first Beatty Lecture.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
Audio: Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Archives
Image: Berkley University Archives
