Rev. Andrew Greeley, religious scholar, 1928-2013

Rev. Andrew Greeley, a leading sociologist of religion, social change, ethnic groups, the priesthood and other subjects at the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, died Wednesday in his apartment at the John Hancock Center. He was 85. He had been convalescing at his Chicago home since a serious accident on Nov. At NORC, Greeley was a research associate for the Center for Study of Politics and Society, which investigates societal change in comparative perspective. Greeley's work on the sociology of religion included research on Catholicism, peoples' images of God, trends in belief in life after death and many other aspects of religion. "He was a true renaissance man: a priest, a man of faith; a sociologist, a man of science; and a novelist, a man of creativity.