The Anthem Companion to Robert N. Bellah

The Anthem Companion to Robert N. Bellah

Edited by Matteo Bortolini

Anthem Companions to Sociology

‘The Anthem Companion to Robert Bellah’ is the first major collection of writings on the life and work of one of the foremost twentieth-century sociologists of religion.

Hardback, 232 Pages

ISBN:9781783089628

June 2019

£80.00, $125.00

  • About This Book
  • Reviews
  • Author Information
  • Series
  • Table of Contents
  • Links
  • Podcasts

About This Book

‘The Anthem Companion to Robert Bellah’ is the first major collection of writings on the life and work of one of the foremost twentieth-century sociologists of religion. Bellah’s work was central in many fields: the sociology of Japanese religion, the relationships between sociology and the humanities, the relationship between American religion and politics, the cultures of modern individualism, and evolution and society. During an intellectual career which spanned six decades, Bellah occupied a central position within at least three major intellectual movements: structural-functionalism and modernization theory in the 1950s and the 1960s; interpretive social science, which he helped create in the early 1970s along with Clifford Geertz and Peter Berger; and the so-called Axial age revival of the late 1990s and early 2000s. More often than not, Bellah’s work was on the edge of social scientific research; his seminal work on civil religion in the early 1970s created a huge debate across disciplines which continues to this day; his co-authored book ‘Habits of the Heart’ (1985) was a bestseller and the object of sustained debate in the general public sphere; his last magnum opus ‘Religion in Human Evolution’, published at 84, was a monument to an extraordinary scholarly and intellectual career. [NP] The richness of Bellah’s work is the object of this collection of essays by top American and European scholars from the social sciences and humanities. Each essay has a double character: it introduces a single topic in an accessible and complete manner, and then presents a reflection on the viability and import of Bellah’s ideas for interpreting contemporary phenomena. Among the authors are some of Bellah’s students who became top scholars in their fields, as well as younger scholars. From a disciplinary point of view, the list includes sociologists (Gorski, Torpey, Boy, Guhin, Libeck), historians (Borovoy, Barshay) and philosophers (Tipton, Lequire) to reflect the diversity of Bellah’s work.

Reviews

The Anthem Companions to Sociology offers wide ranging and masterly overviews of the works of major sociologists. The volumes in the series provide authoritative and critical appraisals of key figures in modern social thought. These books, written and edited by leading figures, are essential additional reading on the history of sociology. — Gerard Delanty, Professor of Sociology, University of Sussex, Brighton

This ambitious series provides an intellectually thoughtful introduction to the featured social theorists and offers a comprehensive assessment of their legacy. Each edited collection synthesizes the many dimensions of the respective theorist’s contributions and sympathetically ponders the various nuances in and the broader societal context for their body of work. The series will be appreciated by seasoned scholars and students alike. — Michele Dillon, Professor of Sociology and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, University of New Hampshire

The orchestration and emergence of the Anthem Companions to Sociology represent a formidable and invaluable achievement. Each companion explores the scope, ingenuity, and conceptual subtleties of the works of a theorist indispensable to the sociological project. The editors and contributors for each volume are the very best in their fields, and they guide us towards the richest, most creative seams in the writings of their thinker. The results, strikingly consistent from one volume to the next, brush away the years, reanimate what might have been lost, and bring numerous rays of illumination to the most pressing challenges of the present. — Rob Stones, Professor of Sociology, Western Sydney University, Australia

The Anthem Companions, those that have appeared already and those that are to come, will give every sociologist a handy and authoritative guide to all the giants of their discipline. — Stephen Mennell, Professor Emeritus, University College Dublin

Each volume of the Anthem Companions to Sociology examines comprehensively not only a theorist’s distinct approach and unique contributions, but also situates each in reference to the major parameters of mainstream theoretical schools and traditions. This remarkable Series in addition throws into high relief the singular features of modern societies. It promises to set the standard for discussions of Sociology’s long-term development and belongs on the shelves of every social scientist.— Stephen Kalberg, Professor of Sociology Emeritus, Boston University 

This valuable series covers both familiar figures in the history of sociology (such as Max Weber and, prospectively, Marx and Durkheim) and less often treated ones such as Arendt and Troeltsch who are also highly relevant to sociology, broadly conceived. In these books, leading scholars explore important but often neglected aspects of their subjects’ work. — William Outhwaite, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Newcastle University, UK

Author Information

Matteo Bortolini is associate professor of sociology at the University of Padova, Italy. His main areas of research are the sociology of knowledge and sociological theory, with particular focus on intellectuals, history of disciplines, social practices and reputational processes. Bortolini’s latest publication is the coauthored book, 'Italian Sociology 1945–2010' (2017).

Series

Anthem Companions to Sociology

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors; Introduction: On Being a Scholar and an Intellectual, Matteo Bortolini; Part 1 MAJOR THEMES; Chapter 1 Dialogues between Area Studies and Social Thought: Robert Bellah’s Engagement with Japan, Amy Borovoy; Chapter 2 Civil Religion and Public Theology, Steven M. Tipton; Chapter 3 Out of the Deep Past: The Axial Age and Robert Bellah’s Project of Social Criticism, John D. Boy and John Torpey; Part 2 YESTERDAY AND TODAY; Chapter 4 Broken Covenant Redux? Civil Religion in Crisis, Philip Gorski; Chapter 5 Robert Bellah’s Catholic Imagination, Jeffrey Guhin; Chapter 6 Habits of the Heart Revisited: American Individualism before and after the Communitarian Moment, Eric R. Lybeck; Part 3 UNEXPECTED MASTERS; Chapter 7 Friends in History: Eric Voegelin and Robert Bellah, Peter Brickey LeQuire; Chapter 8 The Protestant Imagination: Robert Bellah, Maruyama Masao and the Study of Japanese Thought, Andrew E. Barshay; Index.

Links

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