Berger, Peter (b. 1929)

Peter L. Berger is an American sociologist best known for his work in the fields of sociology of knowledge and sociology of religion. He is one of the most prolific and widely read contemporary sociologists, whose publications include Invitation to Sociology (1963), The Social Construction of Reality (with Thomas Luckmann, 1966), and The Sacred Canopy (1967), his main work on the sociology of religion. Born in Vienna, Austria, Berger moved to the United States in 1946 and after completing his PhD in sociology at the New School of Social Research in 1952 has held positions at several American universities. Since 1981, Berger has been University Professor of Sociology and Theology at Boston University and since 1985, the director of the Institute for Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (formerly Institute for the Study of Economic Culture) at Boston University.

Berger is perhaps best known for his introductory sociology books and the theory introduced in [Page 136]The Social Construction of Reality, but his main substantive work has been in the sociology of religion. The Sacred Canopy combines Berger's theoretical work on the sociology of knowledge with ideas from phenomenology of religion (e.g., Rudolph Otto), creating a characteristically “Bergerian” theory of religion that has provided the sociology of religion with important concepts such as (his reformulation of) “theodicy” and “plausibility structure.”

Berger's most influential contribution to the field, however, has been his theory of secularization. While mostly following Max Weber's ideas on the impact of capitalism and bureaucracy on religion, Berger's original thesis is that pluralization begets secularization by undermining certainty in consciousness. Using the Protestant Reformation as an example, Berger shows how the challenge to religious monopolies not only changes the institutional status of religions in society but also erodes individual belief.

While Berger's secularization thesis has been very influential, especially in interpreting religious change in Europe, it has also been criticized on the basis of the apparently opposite development in the United States, where plurality of religious choices seems to have created a thriving religious culture. Although considered by some the main proponent of the “old paradigm”—those supporting the secularization thesis—in the sociology of religion, Berger has more recently become a vocal critic of his own views and is now best known for abandoning his earlier theses and advocating the idea of the desecularization of the world.

In addition to sociology, Berger has written explicitly theological texts. He has, however, always been keen to point out that as a sociologist he cannot say anything about the reality of the transcendent.