The brilliant but turbulent life of a public intellectual who
transformed the social sciences
Robert Bellah (1927-2013) was one of the most influential social
scientists of the twentieth century. Trained as a sociologist, he
crossed disciplinary boundaries in pursuit of a greater comprehension of
religion as both a cultural phenomenon and a way to fathom the depths of
the human condition. A Joyfully Serious Man is the definitive
biography of this towering figure in modern intellectual life, and a
revelatory portrait of a man who led an adventurous yet turbulent life.
Drawing on Bellah's personal papers as well as in-depth interviews with
those who knew him, Matteo Bortolini tells the story of an extraordinary
scholarly career and an eventful and tempestuous life. He describes
Bellah's exile from the United States during the hysteria of the
McCarthy years, his crushing personal tragedies, and his experiments
with sexuality. Bellah understood religion as a mysterious human
institution that brings together the scattered pieces of individual and
collective experiences. Bortolini shows how Bellah championed
intellectual openness and innovation through his relentless opposition
to any notion of secularization as a decline of religion and his ideas
about the enduring tensions between individualism and community in
American society.
Based on nearly two decades of research, A Joyfully Serious Man is a
revelatory chronicle of a leading public intellectual who was both a
transformative thinker and a restless, passionate seeker.
