Hans Joas is Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, where he belongs to the Committee on Social Thought. He is also director of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies in Erfurt, Germany. Among his recent English books are: The Genesis of Values (University of Chicago Press, 2000), Do We Need Religion?: On the Experience of Self-Transcendence (Paradigm Publishers, 2007), and Social Theory (with W. Knoebl, Cambridge University Press, 2008).