It is with deep sorrow that the Department of Sociology mourns the passing of a cherished colleague, Professor Emeritus Irving M. Zeitlin. A cornerstone of our community for over five decades, Professor Zeitlin served as Chair from the time of his hire in 1972 until 1977—a period of transition, occasionally contentious—during which he provided respected leadership as the department underwent curricular and faculty renewal, positioning it for the growth years that followed.
Professor Zeitlin received his Ph.D. in Sociology & Anthropology from Princeton University in 1964. A Fellowship awarded by the National Science Foundation enabled him to spend the following year in Paris, deepening his studies of European social theory under the guidance of Maximilien Rubel. Returning to the United States, he took up academic positions at Indiana University and Washington University in St. Louis, before his recruitment to the University of Toronto.
A prolific scholar, Zeitlin’s intellectual contributions are largely concentrated in his fifteen published monographs, several appearing in multiple editions and translations. In early foundational works such as Marxism: A Re-Examination (1967) and the seminal Ideology and the Development of Sociological Theory (1968, seven editions through 2001), he played a leading role in bringing Marxist social theory from the margins into the centre of North American academic discourse. In Rethinking Sociology: A Critique of Contemporary Theory (1973), he offered bold and incisive assessments of the then reigning paradigms—Functionalism, Exchange Theory, Conflict Theory, Phenomenology, Ethnomethodology, and Symbolic Interactionism—respectfully acknowledging their respective but partial insights, while clinically laying bare their underlying ideological assumptions and debilitating incapacity to integrate the social structural, historical, and social psychological dimensions of human existence. And, yes, Charles Wright Mills was indeed one of Irving’s lifelong inspirations. Other notable forays into theory and intellectual history include the books on Alexis de Tocqueville (1971), Plato (1993), and Nietzsche (1994). It was the historical sociology of religion, however, that would constitute Zeitlin’s primary substantive research interest, as confirmed above all by Ancient Judaism: Biblical Criticism from Max Weber to the Present (1984), Jesus and the Judaism of His Time (1988), The Historical Muhammad (2007), Jews: The Making of a Diaspora People (2012), and closing, quite fittingly, with The Book of Job: A Theological Scandal (2017).
Professor Zeitlin’s dedication to teaching and mentoring was equally remarkable. He taught the department’s large-enrolment undergraduate theory and introductory courses decade after decade, imparting to thousands of students the indispensability of theoretical knowledge in comprehending the histories that shaped them and the social worlds in which they lived. His graduate seminars in sociological theory were legendary, no less for their liveliness of debate than for their extensive reading requirements, with syllabi that paired canonical texts with highly original but lesser-known works rarely taught in standard graduate training. His feedback on seminar papers was always thorough, frequently blunt, invariably constructive. For his doctoral students, expectations were demanding. He looked with disfavor on strictly exegetical projects, and insisted all theoretical work needed substantive anchorage in historical case studies. Reading knowledge of multiple languages was also strongly encouraged. Glimpses of the depth and range of his mentoring influence are perhaps most clearly on display in Society, History, and the Global Human Condition: Essays in Honor of Irving M. Zeitlin (2010), a festschrift project that brought together contributions from many of his former doctoral students, along with essays by distinguished senior colleagues and scholarly friends.
Irving M. Zeitlin will be sorely missed by all those privileged to have known him. We take comfort, however, in the certainty that his scholarly legacy and exemplary generosity of spirit will long continue to enlighten and inspire. He is survived by his four children, Ruth, Beth, Michael, and Jeremy, and his brother Maurice. To each of them we extend our heartfelt condolences.
Any sociology failing to recognize the historical character of society and its forms is bound to conceal from our view what is most essential. We must not deal with one frozen moment of a process but with the process itself.
Rethinking Sociology, p. 257
Those interested in sharing their memories of Irving Zeitlin can do so by signing his Memorial Book.