Peter L. Berger
Encyclopedia
Peter Ludwig Berger is an Austrian-born American sociologist
well known for his work, co-authored with Thomas Luckmann
, The Social Construction of Reality
: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (New York, 1966).
, Austria
and later emigrated to the United States
shortly after World War II
. In 1949 he graduated from Wagner College
with a Bachelor of Arts
. He continued his studies at The New School
in New York (M.A. in 1950, Ph.D. in 1954).
In 1955 and 1956 he worked at the Evangelische Akademie in Bad Boll
, Germany
. From 1956 to 1958 Berger was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina
; from 1958 to 1963 he was an associate professor at Hartford Theological Seminary. The next stations in his career were professorships at the New School for Social Research, Rutgers University
, and Boston College
. Since 1981 Berger has been University Professor of Sociology and Theology at Boston University
, and since 1985 also director of the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture, which transformed, a few years ago, into the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs.
is a form of consciousness
. Central to Berger's work is the relationship between society
and the individual
. With Thomas Luckmann
in The Social Construction of Reality, Berger develops a sociological theory: 'Society as Objective Reality and as Subjective Reality'. His analysis of society as subjective reality describes the process by which an individual's conception of reality is produced by his or her interaction with social structures. He writes about how new human concepts or inventions become a part of our reality through the process of objectivation. Often this reality is then no longer recognized as a human creation, through a process Berger calls reification
.
His conception of social structure
revolving around the importance of language
, "the most important sign system of human society," is similar to Hegel
's conception of Geist.
Like most other sociologists of religion of his day, he mistakenly predicted the all-encompassing secularization
of the world. This he has quite humorously admitted on a number of occasions, concluding that the data in fact proves otherwise. By the late 1980s, Berger publicly recognized that religion
(both old and new) was not only still prevalent, but in many cases was more vibrantly practiced than in periods in the past, particularly in the United States
.
He does, however, qualify these concessions. While recognizing that religion is still a powerful social force, he points to the fact that pluralism and the globalized
world fundamentally change how the individual experiences faith, with the taken-for-granted character of religion often being replaced by an individual's search for a personal religious preference. Likewise, in The Desecularization of the World, he cites both Western academia and Western Europe itself as exceptions to the triumphant desecularization hypothesis: these cultures have remained highly secularized despite the resurgence of religion in the rest of the world.
Despite the rise of a "new paradigm" in the sociology of religion
, which draws upon insights from rational choice theory
in explaining the behavior of religious firms (churches) and consumers (individuals), Berger's thought has influenced many significant figures in the field of sociology of religion
today, including his colleague at Boston University
, Robert Hefner, and former students Michael Plekhon, James Davison Hunter
, and Nancy Ammerman
.
More recently he has written broadly but with particular emphasis on the sociology of religion and capitalism:
in 1982.
He is doctor honoris causa of Loyola University
, Wagner College
, the University of Notre Dame
, the University of Geneva
, and the University of Munich, and an honorary member of many scientific associations.
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
well known for his work, co-authored with Thomas Luckmann
Thomas Luckmann
Thomas Luckmann is a German sociologist of Slovene origin. His main areas of research are the sociology of communication, Sociology of knowledge, sociology of religion, and the philosophy of science.- Biography :...
, The Social Construction of Reality
The Social Construction of Reality
The Social Construction of Reality is a book about the sociology of knowledge written by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann and published in 1966....
: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (New York, 1966).
Biography
Berger was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and later emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
shortly after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1949 he graduated from Wagner College
Wagner College
Wagner College is a private, co-educational, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 total students located atop Grymes Hill in New York City's borough of Staten Island...
with a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
. He continued his studies at The New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
in New York (M.A. in 1950, Ph.D. in 1954).
In 1955 and 1956 he worked at the Evangelische Akademie in Bad Boll
Bad Boll
Bad Boll is a municipality in the district of Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.-History:Since the Middle Ages there has been a thermal spa there, at one time a hunting lodge of the Dukes of Württemberg. In the 19th Century, the spa was acquired by Pastor Johann Christoph...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. From 1956 to 1958 Berger was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
; from 1958 to 1963 he was an associate professor at Hartford Theological Seminary. The next stations in his career were professorships at the New School for Social Research, Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
, and Boston College
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
. Since 1981 Berger has been University Professor of Sociology and Theology at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, and since 1985 also director of the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture, which transformed, a few years ago, into the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs.
Thought
Berger is perhaps best known for his view that social realitySocial reality
Social reality is distinct from biological reality or individual cognitive reality, and has been defined as 'a level of phenomena that emerges through social interactions and that cannot be reduced to the intentions of individuals'....
is a form of consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
. Central to Berger's work is the relationship between society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
and the individual
Individual
An individual is a person or any specific object or thing in a collection. Individuality is the state or quality of being an individual; a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs, goals, and desires. Being self expressive...
. With Thomas Luckmann
Thomas Luckmann
Thomas Luckmann is a German sociologist of Slovene origin. His main areas of research are the sociology of communication, Sociology of knowledge, sociology of religion, and the philosophy of science.- Biography :...
in The Social Construction of Reality, Berger develops a sociological theory: 'Society as Objective Reality and as Subjective Reality'. His analysis of society as subjective reality describes the process by which an individual's conception of reality is produced by his or her interaction with social structures. He writes about how new human concepts or inventions become a part of our reality through the process of objectivation. Often this reality is then no longer recognized as a human creation, through a process Berger calls reification
Reification (fallacy)
Reification is a fallacy of ambiguity, when an abstraction is treated as if it were a concrete, real event, or physical entity. In other words, it is the error of treating as a "real thing" something which is not a real thing, but merely an idea...
.
His conception of social structure
Social structure
Social structure is a term used in the social sciences to refer to patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of the individuals. The usage of the term "social structure" has changed over time and may reflect the various levels of analysis...
revolving around the importance of language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
, "the most important sign system of human society," is similar to Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality as a whole revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism.Hegel developed a comprehensive...
's conception of Geist.
Like most other sociologists of religion of his day, he mistakenly predicted the all-encompassing secularization
Secularization
Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...
of the world. This he has quite humorously admitted on a number of occasions, concluding that the data in fact proves otherwise. By the late 1980s, Berger publicly recognized that religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
(both old and new) was not only still prevalent, but in many cases was more vibrantly practiced than in periods in the past, particularly in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
He does, however, qualify these concessions. While recognizing that religion is still a powerful social force, he points to the fact that pluralism and the globalized
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
world fundamentally change how the individual experiences faith, with the taken-for-granted character of religion often being replaced by an individual's search for a personal religious preference. Likewise, in The Desecularization of the World, he cites both Western academia and Western Europe itself as exceptions to the triumphant desecularization hypothesis: these cultures have remained highly secularized despite the resurgence of religion in the rest of the world.
Despite the rise of a "new paradigm" in the sociology of religion
Sociology of religion
The sociology of religion concerns the role of religion in society: practices, historical backgrounds, developments and universal themes. There is particular emphasis on the recurring role of religion in all societies and throughout recorded history...
, which draws upon insights from rational choice theory
Rational choice theory
Rational choice theory, also known as choice theory or rational action theory, is a framework for understanding and often formally modeling social and economic behavior. It is the main theoretical paradigm in the currently-dominant school of microeconomics...
in explaining the behavior of religious firms (churches) and consumers (individuals), Berger's thought has influenced many significant figures in the field of sociology of religion
Sociology of religion
The sociology of religion concerns the role of religion in society: practices, historical backgrounds, developments and universal themes. There is particular emphasis on the recurring role of religion in all societies and throughout recorded history...
today, including his colleague at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, Robert Hefner, and former students Michael Plekhon, James Davison Hunter
James Davison Hunter
James Davison Hunter is a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia. He has written eight books. In 2005 he won the Richard M. Weaver Prize for Scholarly Letters....
, and Nancy Ammerman
Nancy Ammerman
Nancy Tatom Ammerman is a professor of sociology of religion, now at Boston University. In 1993 she wrote a controversial report about the Branch Davidians and Waco.-Life:...
.
Works
Berger's influential sociological works include:- The Noise of Solemn Assemblies (1961)
- Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective (1963)
- The Social Construction of RealityThe Social Construction of RealityThe Social Construction of Reality is a book about the sociology of knowledge written by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann and published in 1966....
: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (1966) with Thomas LuckmannThomas LuckmannThomas Luckmann is a German sociologist of Slovene origin. His main areas of research are the sociology of communication, Sociology of knowledge, sociology of religion, and the philosophy of science.- Biography :...
, ISBN 0-385-05898-5 - The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (1967). Anchor Books 1990 paperback: ISBN 0-385-07305-4
- A Rumor of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural (1969). Anchor Books (in print): ISBN 0-385-06630-9, 1990 expanded edition (now out of print): ISBN 0-385-41592-3
More recently he has written broadly but with particular emphasis on the sociology of religion and capitalism:
- Sociology (1972) with Brigitte Berger. Basic Books. - Dutch translation: Sociologie (1972). Basisboeken, ISBN 90 263 2006 X
- The Homeless Mind: Modernization and Consciousness (1973) with Brigitte Berger and Hansfried Kellner. Random House, ISBN 0394484223
- Pyramids of Sacrifice: Political Ethics and Social Change (1974)
- Facing Up to Modernity: Excursions in Society, Politics and Religion (1979)
- The Heretical Imperative: Contemporary Possibilities of Religious Affirmation (1979)
- The Other Side of God: A Polarity in World Religions (editor, 1981). ISBN 0-385-17424-1
- The War Over the Family: Capturing the Middle Ground (1983) with Brigitte Berger
- The Capitalist Revolution (1986) New York: Basic Books.
- The Capitalist Spirit: Toward a Religious Ethic of Wealth Creation (editor, 1990)
- A Far Glory: The Quest for Faith in an Age of Credulity (1992)
- Redeeming Laughter: The Comic Dimension of Human Experience (1997), ISBN 3110155621
- Four Faces of Global Culture (The National Interest, Fall 1997)
- The Limits of Social Cohesion: Conflict and Mediation in Pluralist Societies: A Report of the Bertelsmann Foundation to the Club of Rome (1998)
- The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics (editor, et al., 1999). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, ISBN 0-8028-4691-2
- Peter Berger and the Study of Religion (edited by Linda Woodhead et al., 2001; includes a Postscript by Berger)
- Many Globalizations: Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World (2002) with Samuel P. Huntington. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195151466
- Questions of Faith: A Skeptical Affirmation of Christianity (2003). Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 1-4051-0848-7
- In Praise of Doubt: How to Have Convictions Without Becoming a Fanatic (2009) with Anton Zijderveld. HarperOne. ISBN 978-0061778162
Honors
Berger was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1982.
He is doctor honoris causa of Loyola University
Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago is a private Jesuit research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1870 under the title St...
, Wagner College
Wagner College
Wagner College is a private, co-educational, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 total students located atop Grymes Hill in New York City's borough of Staten Island...
, the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, the University of Geneva
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland.It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin, as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it...
, and the University of Munich, and an honorary member of many scientific associations.
Further reading
- James D. Hunter, Stephen C. Ainley. Making Sense of Modern Times: Peter L. Berger and the Vision of Interpretive Sociology
- Robert Wuthnow. Cultural Analysis: The Work of Peter L. Berger, Mary Douglas, Michel Foucault, and Jurgen Habermas
External links
- Description at Boston University Religious Faculty
- Peter Berger's blog
- Peter L. Berger Room
- Peter Berger Resources
- From Religion-Online
- Dialectical Social Science Conservative humanism of Berger circle compared to tradition of Western Marxism.