Hans Joas is a German sociologist and social theorist. He 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. His 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. His works include George Herbert Mead. A Contemporary Re-examination of His Thought (1985), Pragmatism and Social Theory (1993), The Creativity of Action (1996), Social Theory (with Wolfgang Knoebl) (2009) and the renowned The Genesis of Values (University of Chicago Press (2000).