François Houtart

Who is François Houtart?

François Houtart is a Belgian marxist sociologist and Catholic priest.

He studied philosophy and theology at the seminary of Mechelen and became a priest in 1949. He earned a masters degree in political and social sciences at the Catholic University of Leuven. He earned a degree at the International Superior Institute of Urbanism. He earned a PhD in sociology from the Catholic University of Louvain UCL.

His doctoral thesis was based on sociology of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and he was a professor at UCL from 1958 till 1990. He is an author and co-author of numerous publications on socio-religious matters. He served as the chief editor of the International Journal of Sociology of Religion, "Social Compass" for forty years. He also has advised international catholic journalConcilium which was founded at the Nijmegen University, on the issues of sociology of religion.

He participated as a peritus expert in the sessions of Vatican II playing a key role in the formation of the introduction of the Gaudium et Spes. Houtart, over the years, has developed a dialectical approach to study religions in the world.