1st Edition
Peter L. Berger on Religion The Social Reality of Religion
Peter L. Berger on Religion provides an overview and critical assessment of the work of one of the most influential sociologists of the 20th century.
Situating Berger’s writings on religion and secularisation in the broader framework of social constructionism, the book argues that neither he nor the research influenced by him consistently followed the constructionist paradigm. This assessment is informed by a close examination of The Sacred Canopy (1967), in particular. The volume also offers a Berger‑inspired constructionist framework for the study of religion.
This book is an excellent resource for students and researchers interested in the intersection of religion and social theory.
1. A Brief Intellectual Biography
2. Sociology of Knowledge and Sociology of Religion
3. Secularisation and Desecularisation
4. Berger’s Influence
5. Berger’s Critics
6. Rethinking Berger and Religion
Index
Biography
Titus Hjelm is Professor in the Study of Religion at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is the author of Social Constructionisms: Approaches to the Study of the Human World and editor of Peter L. Berger and the Sociology of Religion: 50 Years after The Sacred Canopy. He is the Editor in Chief of Sociology of Religion.
"In this elegantly written volume, Hjelm introduces and critiques the work of the 20th century’s most influential sociologist of religion, and then he retrieves the best of Berger’s ideas for the 21st century. Even those of us who think we know Berger will find new insight here."
Nancy Ammerman, Boston University, USA.
"In this excellent resource for both novice and expert readers, Hjelm carefully situates Peter Berger's scholarship in relationship to the nineteenth and twentieth-century intellectual contexts to which Berger was responding, discusses his influence and ongoing legacy in the academic study of religion, and offers an account of what perhaps remains of value in his work for twenty-first century scholars of religion."
Craig Martin, St Thomas Aquinas College, USA.
