2nd Annual Robert N. Bellah Memorial Lecture
The Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, the Bellah Legacy Group, and the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC invite […]
The Bellah Memorial Lecture Series: Religion in Public Life
This annual lecture series, sponsored by the Bellah Legacy Group and hosted by the Graduate Theological Union, was inaugurated in April, 2025 with a thoughtful and challenging lecture by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde on “Following our North Star in Tumultuous Times.” As the Episcopal Bishop of the Washington, D.C. diocese, she gave the inaugural festivities sermon at the National Cathedral in the presence of President Donald Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance on the need for mercy and empathy from those in positions of authority. She is author of the widely-read How We Learn to be Brave. Her talk for the Bellah lecture drew on the writings of the late sociologist of religion and called for courage and a prophetic role for people of faith in tumultuous times.
The second lecture was given by Professor Eddie Glaude of Princeton in October, 2026, on “Bellah’s Ghost: The Broken Covenant and America’s 250th Anniversary.” In this lecture Glaude drew on Bellah’s insights and Glaude’s own reflections on America’s anniversary occasions from his recent book, America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries. Glaude is affiliated with the departments of Religion and Africa-American Studies at Princeton and is a frequent public commentator in the news media, including MS-NOW and The New York Times.
By focusing the lecture series on religion in public life, the Bellah Legacy Group intends to highlight one of the central themes of Bellah’s writings and public statements. Early in his career, in 1967, he published a widely-read essay on “Civil Religion in America,” in which he revived the concept coined by the Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau that every modern nation has a core of shared values that are religious in a non-sectarian sense: they acknowledge a higher power and respond to moral accountability, a shared faith that gives cohesion to the social contract of a democratic society. Bellah expanded on this idea to emphasize the need for nations to be true to their moral reckoning and to heed the prophetic voices that citizens and religious institutions need to supply.
In this lecture series, the Bellah Legacy Group hopes that the prophetic voice that Bellah delivered in his lifetime will resound. The speakers have been chosen with the expectation that they will utilize the writings of Bellah and their own convictions and faith commitments to provide insightful explorations into the moral conditions and prophetic responses of contemporary public life. In this way the lecture series will help to perpetuate the thinking and the mission of the great sociologist of religion, Robert Neely Bellah.
The second lecture was given by Professor Eddie Glaude of Princeton in October, 2026, on “Bellah’s Ghost: The Broken Covenant and America’s 250th Anniversary.” In this lecture Glaude drew on Bellah’s insights and Glaude’s own reflections on America’s anniversary occasions from his recent book, America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries. Glaude is affiliated with the departments of Religion and Africa-American Studies at Princeton and is a frequent public commentator in the news media, including MS-NOW and The New York Times.
By focusing the lecture series on religion in public life, the Bellah Legacy Group intends to highlight one of the central themes of Bellah’s writings and public statements. Early in his career, in 1967, he published a widely-read essay on “Civil Religion in America,” in which he revived the concept coined by the Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau that every modern nation has a core of shared values that are religious in a non-sectarian sense: they acknowledge a higher power and respond to moral accountability, a shared faith that gives cohesion to the social contract of a democratic society. Bellah expanded on this idea to emphasize the need for nations to be true to their moral reckoning and to heed the prophetic voices that citizens and religious institutions need to supply.
In this lecture series, the Bellah Legacy Group hopes that the prophetic voice that Bellah delivered in his lifetime will resound. The speakers have been chosen with the expectation that they will utilize the writings of Bellah and their own convictions and faith commitments to provide insightful explorations into the moral conditions and prophetic responses of contemporary public life. In this way the lecture series will help to perpetuate the thinking and the mission of the great sociologist of religion, Robert Neely Bellah.
The Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, the Bellah Legacy Group, and the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC invite you to our upcoming event in Berkeley.
Pre-registration required. Event is free but donations are requested to support this event and our ongoing work.
Join the Bellah Legacy Group and the Graduate Theological Union on October 8, 2026 for a major event:
2nd Annual Robert N. Bellah Memorial Lecture
Dr. Eddie Glaude
Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies
Princeton University
Princeton University
Professor Eddie Glaude is a leading scholar of African-American political and religious life, New York Times-bestselling author of We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For and other prominent books, and a dynamic public speaker. He will draw on his own and Robert Bellah’s intellectual work to reflect on the current moment facing American society and its trajectory going forward.
Thursday, October 8
Opening reception: 4:45pm
Welcome, address, and discussion: 5:00-6:30pm
Welcome, address, and discussion: 5:00-6:30pm
Donations greatly appreciated via link below:
Our Purpose
This website is supported by the Bellah Legacy Group, a circle of former colleagues and others dedicated to furthering the reflections on the role of religion in public life that were initiated by the great sociologist of religion, Robert N. Bellah.
These include the concept of civil religion, the moral challenges to modernity, the role of religion in sustaining communities and ‘the good society,’ and religion in human evolution.
This website will highlight the activities of the group in conducting lectures, seminars, panels at academic conferences, and the annual Bellah Lecture on Religion in Public Life, held at Berkeley in conjunction with the Graduate Theological Union. It will also include discussions of the contributions of members of the Legacy Group and other contemporary thinkers in furthering Bellah’s ideas and concepts. In these ways we hope to continue the conversation that Bellah initiated among the academic community and the general public in elevating the discussion about the moral character of civic order and the role of religions in public life.
These include the concept of civil religion, the moral challenges to modernity, the role of religion in sustaining communities and ‘the good society,’ and religion in human evolution.
This website will highlight the activities of the group in conducting lectures, seminars, panels at academic conferences, and the annual Bellah Lecture on Religion in Public Life, held at Berkeley in conjunction with the Graduate Theological Union. It will also include discussions of the contributions of members of the Legacy Group and other contemporary thinkers in furthering Bellah’s ideas and concepts. In these ways we hope to continue the conversation that Bellah initiated among the academic community and the general public in elevating the discussion about the moral character of civic order and the role of religions in public life.
Past Legacy Events
Participation | Dignity | Elections: An online Catholic theology webinar
September 16 & 17, 2026 More information: https://dornsife.usc.edu/iacs/participation-dignity-elections/
Roundtable Proposal – The Contradictions of Religion and Modernity in the 21st Century
Presider: Anna Sun is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Sociology at Duke University. List of Panelists: Richard Madsen is […]
The Bellah Legacy Group partnered with the GTU to create an annual lecture designed to preserve, build on, sustain, and promote awareness of the corpus and legacy of Robert N. Bellah’s work within a contemporary context.
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IACS, the BLG, and Robert Bellah
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The Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC (IACS) is pleased to host the Bellah Legacy Group (BLG) website. The BLG functions independently of IACS, but their back stories and intellectual missions complement one another remarkably. Robert Bellah was a long-time Episcopalian, arguably the Protestant tradition closest to Roman Catholicism in governance, theology, and liturgical practice. He also engaged extensively with Catholicism through much of his career via lectures, honorary doctorates, and Catholic students and intellectual interlocutors. Bellah and Ann Swidler—his co-author and a founding member of the BLG—were crucial directors of the doctoral dissertation of Richard L. Wood, now the president of IACS. In addition, one way to understand the mission of IACS is as an expression on specifically Catholic terrain of Bellah’s lifelong project of: i) bringing religious insight to bear, both critically and constructively, on society in all its dimensions; ii) advancing interfaith understanding and collaboration; and iii) enhancing rigorous thinking at the intersection of religion and science and creative work at the intersection of social science and the humanities.