Anthony J. Blasi (1946-2024)
Anthony (Tony) Blasi was born April 3, 1946, in Dayton, Ohio to Emmanuel A. Blasi and Mary Ella (Marshall) Blasi, one of five children. He spent most of his childhood in Santa Clara County, California and graduated from St. Francis High School in Mountain View. One sister predeceased him.

He earned the A.B. in history from St. Edward’s University in Austin,Texas, and taught at the secondary level in Sherman Oaks, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana. He completed the Ph.D. in sociology and anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, graduating in 1974. Most of his academic career was spent teaching at Tennessee State University.

Tony‘s early academic interest and publications focused on the methodological problem of accounting for macro phenomena with micro-level observations. He found survey and ethnographic data concerning the identity of religious role players inadequate for the task. A study of segregationist and civil rights community movements proved to be better, but still insufficient. Eventually, he focused on literary and behavioral texts in their dialectic with societal contexts, especially as manifest in layers of biblical tradition (M.A. University of St. Michael's College, Toronto; Th.D. jointly Regis College and the University of Toronto). Such could not be theorized with rational propositions because they are often non-rational in nature.

In the course of his intellectual itinerary, Tony made contributions to the sociology of religion, social theory, community social movements, the history of sociology, and the sociology of music. He saw the last of these as a parallel to the sociology of religion. He also served on the team that made the centenary translation into English of Georg Simmel’s Soziologie, the only English translation of the complete work.

He served as book review editor and as an associate editor for many years for Sociological Analysis (now Sociology of Religion), and for a term as editor of the Review of Religious Research. He was the 2000-2001 president of the Association for the Sociology of Religion. In his later years, he collaborated with scholars at the University of Padua on the study of the sociology of human rights.

After retiring from Tennessee State University, he moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he was active in the Bexar County Democratic Party and Pax Christi. He also translated prayers used in the Catholic Church from the original Hebrew into English.