Peter Ludwig Berger (born March 17, 1929) is an American sociologist well known for his work The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (New York, 1966).

Biography

Berger was born in Vienna and 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 for Social Research in New York (M.A. in 1950, Ph. D. in 1952).

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 Professor of Sociology and Theology at Boston University, and since 1985 also director of the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture .

Works

The influential sociological works of Berger include:

• Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective (1963)
• The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (1966, with Thomas Luckmann)
• The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (1967)
• A Rumor of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural, 1970.

Today he writes on the sociology of religion and capitalism:

• 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
• The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics. et al. 1999
• Questions of Faith: A Skeptical Affirmation of Christianity (Religion and the Modern World), 2003
• A Far Glory: The Quest for Faith in an Age of Credibility, 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 0385174241

References

• 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

Honours

Berger is doctor honoris causa of Loyola University, Wagner College, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Geneva, and Munich University. He is an honorary member of many scientific associations.