Hans Joas

Hans Joas (; ; born November 27, 1948) is a German sociologist and social theorist.
Hans Joas is Ernst Troeltsch Professor for the Sociology of Religion at the Humboldt University of Berlin. From 2011 until 2014 he was a Permanent Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS); from 2002 until 2011 he was the Director of the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt. He is also Visiting Professor of Sociology and Social Thought and a Member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Hans Joas is Ordinary Member of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Non-resident Long-term Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala.
Life.
In 2012 Joas was the first scholar to be Visiting Professor of the Joseph Ratzinger Pope Benedikt XVI. Foundation at the University of Regensburg. The topic of his lectures was "Sacralization and Secularization".
Since November 2015 Joas is a member of the advisory board of the Federation of German Scientists (Vereinigung Deutscher Wissenschaftler e. V.).
Research.
Hans Joas’ research focuses on social philosophy and sociological theory, mainly American Pragmatism and Historicism; the sociology of religion and the sociology of war and violence; as well as value change in modern societies.
The emergence/formation of values is a core theme of Hans Joas’ work. He developed a theory of "Affirmative Genealogy" of values, especially with regard to human rights. According to Joas values originate in experiences of self-formation and self-transcendence. He developed a phenomenology of experiences of self-transcendence. Joas emphasizes that his account of the contingency of value-formation is not to be seen as a plea against the claims of a universalistic morality.