Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Before the year 2000, accomplished sociologist Peter Berger had positioned himself effectively to challenge four widely held assumptions concerning the ‘limited’ role of religion in the public square. First of all, Berger nudged scientific study of religion away from the more positivist and objectivist path of inquiry inspired by Marx and Durkheim, towards a more relativistic and interactionist approach. Secondly, Berger argued that not only was religion an important focal point for interactionist sociological inquiry, but that religious world-views and institutions had been the under-rated heavy hitters within the development of social, political and economic movements as crucial as capitalism, democracy, and globalization. The third general realization that Berger came to was in stark contrast with the secularization thesis so commonly accepted. It came to be understood that modernizing societies would not experience a simple decline of religion due to rising standards of living and education. Berger’s account of ‘sacralization’ alongside ‘secularization’ emerged from his synthesis of an ever growing body of national and transnational studies. The fourth and final challenge Berger posed before the turn of the New Millenium consisted of a legal, economic, political, and practical argument debunking the mythical separation of church and state. In light of current changes and challenges, Berger’s sociological insights concerning the dynamics of faith, his focus on the inextricability of religion in public life, in conjunction with the continued growth of religious intolerance and secularization, still give us reason to pause and reconsider the role and state of religion today.