Robert Bellah

Bellah argued that the United States has a shared public faith expressed through presidents, national ceremonies, sacred historical events, and references to God. He developed the idea in his 1967 essay "Civil Religion in America."

Habits of the Heart examines how Americans reconcile individual freedom with commitments to families, communities, religion, and public life. Bellah co-authored the 1985 book with Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton.

Bellah treated religion as a social source of meaning, solidarity, and moral obligation rather than only a matter of private belief. His work drew heavily on Émile Durkheim while also examining American institutions and Japanese religion.

Bellah spent the central part of his academic career at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a prominent sociologist of religion and lived from 1927 to 2013.