Peter L. Berger

Peter Ludwig Berger ( born March 17, 1929 in Vienna) is an American sociologist.

Life

Peter L. Berger lives in the U.S., where he studied sociology and philosophy since 1946. He studied at Wagner College, where he earned a BA acquired. Following Berger studied at the New School for Social Research in New York (MA 1950, Ph.D. 1952). In the years 1955 and 1956 he worked in Germany at the Protestant Academy Bad Boll. In the years from 1956 to 1958 taught and researched Berger as an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina; 1958 to 1963 he worked at the Hartford Theological Seminary. This was followed by a professor at the New School for Social Research in New York, Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ) and Boston College. Since 1981, Berger Professor of Sociology and Theology at Boston University since 1985 as director of the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture (now the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs ). In addition to his professional activities, he has been involved since 2007 in the Board of Trustees of the International Foundation Martin Luther.

Work areas

The main work and research field Bergers is the sociology of religion. He became famous and Others by his co-authored with Thomas Luckmann sociological work The Social Construction of Reality in the year 1966 ( English) and 1969 (Eng. ), through its collaboration with Brigitte Berger (Long Iceland University) and Hans Fried waiter ( TH Darmstadt) published work Discontents of modernity ( engl. the Homeless Mind. Modernization and Consciousness ), in which the sociology of knowledge, the globalization debate and the debate about the knowledge society was already anticipated in 1973. Both in Berger's Invitation to Sociology (Eng. invitation to sociology) as well as in the 1981 also published with Hansfried waiter book Sociology Reinterpreted. An Essay on Method and Vocation ( dt For a New Sociology 1984) presented an oriented to Max Weber sociology of knowledge perspective of sociology.

In order to bring the situation of religion cultural pluralism on the term, Berger speaks of a heretical imperative: No religious tradition is true more unquestionable. All believers faith or willing, each and every one for himself, were held to select from the traditional stocks Matching (the Greek word hairesis means " choice " or " selection "). Even those who profess allegiance to a religious orthodoxy, would not help in globally that have become pluralistic environment, to choose their orthodoxy specially. All, the encouragingly intentioned message of this finding are heretics.

People and society

Peter L. Berger works " to dialectic of religion and society. Elements of a sociological theory " ( engl. " The Sacred Canopy. Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion " ) is a classic in the field of philosophy of science, particularly the social sciences and the question of the interactive interplay of man and society.

Berger describes the society as a dialectical phenomenon. The company is a created and reared product of man, in turn continuously influenced the people and acts on him. The product "company" is a molded structure of human action and consciousness. Without human existence there would be no society. On the other hand, man is in turn a product of society. The company survived the birth and death of every human being, it co-exists independently of human individuals. Every human life history is a section in the running away of an existing company, which is about every single episode of a human life and persists even after him. Furthermore, it is by living in a society and their social structures, norms and requirements that people reshape, modify, adapt, evolve. Man receives through social processes an identity, where he works and where he holds. He could not survive apart from society. The statement that the company is a product of man and man is a product of society, is not contradictory, but explains the dialectical, interactive nature of the social phenomenon. To get a comprehensive understanding of the dialectical relationship of man and society, must be illuminated and preserves three different stages of a cycle: externalization, objectivation, and internalization.

People come unfinished and unformed to the world. They develop in an ongoing learning process in search of the new, for experience, for knowledge. Through the process of unfolding and the assumption of individual life forms, externalizing ( " divest " ), people both physically and mentally on a mental level in the outside world. This process is called externalization.

Through the process of externalization people make things on in the outside world, they create through physical and mental alienation in turn the social structures, institutions, and ways of life in the world. Human activity and awareness can be things in the outside world to become a reality, things are objectified ( " reified " ) and take realistic existence in the world. If this process of objectification occurs, resulting objects from the influence of the subjective human mind and human behavior go out. Existing social structures can not be at will " wiped out " and away from the people, they have become a reality.

Become reality, however, things are themselves again in a back -acting interaction with the people themselves connected. The objectified structures are influencing perceived by people, they now also have an effect on the subjective actions and ways of thinking of a person and modify the people in his personal life. The process of internalization is important to understand because it illustrates the inherent meaning of the society and the individual in turn.

Finally, it can be summarized that the Company through the externalization of man a product of the people is that it is through objectification to an existing reality outside of human subjectivity ( " sui generis " ), and that man, through internalization is a product of society.

Awards

  • 2000: Ludwig Wittgenstein Prize of the Austrian Research Foundation
  • 2008: Paul Watzlawick Ring of Honor
  • 2010: Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize of the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the University of Tübingen.

Publications

Sociology

  • Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective (1963 ), German: Invitation to Sociology, Munich: German Taschenbuch Verlag, 1977, ISBN 3-423-01203- X
  • The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge ( 1966) with Thomas Luckmann, ISBN 0-385-05898-5, German: The Social Construction of Reality. A theory of the sociology of knowledge. Frankfurt: Fischer Verlag, 1969, ISBN 3-596-26623-8
  • 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 ( 1970). Anchor Books ( in print): ISBN 0-385-06630-9, 1990 expanded edition ( now out of print ) ISBN 0-385-41592-3

Sociology of religion and capitalism theory

  • The Capitalist Spirit: Toward a Religious Ethic of Wealth Creation ( editor, 1990).
  • Peter Berger and the Study of Religion, 2001
  • Homeless Mind: Modernization and Consciousness, 1974
  • Redeeming Laughter: The Comic Dimension of Human Experience, 1997
  • Many Globalizations: Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World, 1974 with Samuel P. Huntington.
  • Questions of Faith: A Skeptical Affirmation of Christianity ( 2003). Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 1-4051-0848-7
  • A Far Glory: The Quest for Faith in the Age of credibility to, 1992.
  • Heretical Imperative: Contemporary Possibilities of Religious Affirmation
  • The Limits of Social Cohesion: Conflict and Mediation in Pluralist Societies: A Report of the Bertelsmann Foundation to the Club of Rome
  • Other Side of God, 1981, ISBN 0-385-17424-1
  • Pyramids of Sacrifice: Political Ethics and Social Change, 1974.
  • Longing for meaning. Faith in an age of credulity. (1999)
  • Dialogue between religious traditions in an age of relativity. Mohr Siebeck Verlag, Tübingen, 2011. ISBN 978-3-16-150792-2.

Autobiography

  • In the morning light of memory. A childhood in a Time of Turbulence. Molden, Vienna 2008 ISBN 978-3-85485-219-3
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