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National Humanities Award Winner Robert Bellah to Give Free Lecture Sept. 18 at CSU, Chico

CSU, Chico’s Department of Religious Studies presents a free lecture by Robert N. Bellah, pioneering scholar and educator in the field of religion, ethics, and society.

Bellah’s lecture, entitled “The Role of Religion in Democratic Societies,” takes place Tuesday Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Harlen Adams Theatre.

Over the course of a forty year career as a professor of sociology at Harvard and the UC Berkeley, Bellah’s work has shaped the way we think about the social nature of religion and morality in the modern world. His many books and articles include The Broken Covenant: American Civil Religion in Time of Trial ; Tokugawa Religion: The Values of Pre-Industrial Japan ; and the widely acclaimed Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment  in American Life , which won The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for “Current Interest” in 1985 and was a Jury Nominee for the Pulitzer Prize in General Non-fiction in 1986.  

In 2000 Bellah was awarded the National Humanities Medal “for his efforts to illuminate the importance of community in American society [and to raise] our awareness of the values that are at the core of our democratic institutions and of the dangers of individualism unchecked by social responsibility.” His most recent book is The Robert Bellah Reader published by Duke University Press in 2006.     

Sponsors for Bellah’s visit to CSU, Chico include the Associated Students Activity Fee Council, the Department of Religious Studies, the Religious Studies Student Society, the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, the School of Graduate, International, and Interdisciplinary Studies, the Department of Sociology, and the Chico Area Interfaith Council.

For more information, please call the Department of Religious Studies at 898-5661.

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