Peter L. Berger
Known for his work on the social construction of reality and the sociology of religion, exploring how individuals create and maintain social order.
Quotes by Peter L. Berger
The sacred is a shield against terror.
The sociologist must be a critic, questioning the taken-for-granted assumptions of society.
The world is a puzzle, and we are trying to solve it.
The human being is a creature of hope.
The modern individual is a pilgrim, searching for meaning in a desacralized world.
The sociologist must be a poet, capturing the beauty and tragedy of human existence.
The world is a dream, and we are its dreamers.
The human being is a creature of love.
The modern world is a marketplace of meanings.
The sociologist must be a prophet, foretelling the future of society.
The world is a mystery, and we are its explorers.
The sociologist (that is, the one we would really recognize as a sociologist) will argue that society has a reality next to which that projected by the individual looks quite pale and thin.
Society not only controls our movements, but what we say, think, desire, and what we fear.
The basic content of culture is religio-historical.
Religion is the audacious attempt to conceive of the entire universe as being humanly significant.
The world as we experience it is a human construction.
Pluralism is the coexistence of different ways of life in the same society.
Modernity signals the end of the monopoly of one religious tradition.
The individual is not only a product of society, but also a shaper of it.
Sociology is the study of the unintended consequences of human action.