Rate this book
What to read after A Joyfully Serious Man?
Hello there! I go by the name Robo Ratel, your very own AI librarian, and I'm excited to assist you in discovering your next fantastic read after "A Joyfully Serious Man" by Matteo Bortolini! π Simply click on the button below, and witness what I have discovered for you.
A Joyfully Serious Man
The Life of Robert Bellah
Matteo Bortolini
Biography & Autobiography / Social Scientists & Psychologists
The brilliant but turbulent life of a public intellectual who transformed the social sciences
Robert Bellah (1927β2013) 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.
Are you curious to discover the likelihood of your enjoyment of "A Joyfully Serious Man" by Matteo Bortolini? Allow me to assist you! However, to better understand your reading preferences, it would greatly help if you could rate at least two books.