The Sacred Canopy

Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion

Peter L. Berger

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781453215371
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology of Religion
• Index: Social Sciences

"The most important contribution to the sociology of religion since Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism " ( Commonweal ).
Acclaimed scholar and sociologist Peter L. Berger carefully lays out an understanding of religion as a historical, societal mechanism in this classic work of social theory. Berger examines the roots of religious belief and its gradual dissolution in modern times, applying a general theoretical perspective to specific examples from religions throughout the ages. Building upon the author's previous work, The Social Construction of Reality, with Thomas Luckmann, this book makes Berger's case that human societies build a "sacred canopy" to protect, stabilize, and give meaning to their worldview.

Subject Index

A

Abbasid Revolution, 69

Absolutism, and ultimate reality, 57; ethical, 122

Action, Divine, 68–69, 118; courses of, 93; freedom of, 119

Activity, religious, 41, 45; and karma-samsara complex, 65; rational, 68; human, 81, 89, 91–92, 95–96, 100; meaningful, 86

Acts, religious, 41

Adultery, and marriage, 94

Affirmations, religious, 168

Affliction, and Divine intervention, 68

Ahriman, 71

Akkadia creation epic, 117

Albigensians, persecution of, 49

Alienation, religious, 81, 94, 98, 100–1; definition of, 85; of man, 91–92, 96; legitimate, 95

Allegiance, church, 138

Aloneness, and man, 56

America, secularization of, 108; anticlericalism in, 130; middle-class, 133, 146; and Protestantism, 137, 143; theological changes in, 161; and neo-orthodoxy, 165–66; psychotherapeutic programs in, 167–68; Judaism in, 170

Amos, Book of, 116

Anarchism, legitimation of, 98

Ancestors, and immortality, 62–63

Ancient City, The, 191

Ancient Judaism, 201

Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 202

Angels, in Catholic theology, 121

Anglicanism, and the Reformation, 111; and rationalism, 157–58; revival of orthodoxy, 162

Animals, and man, 4; environment of, 5; species of, 17; and power, 25–26; sufferings of, 62

Animism, theory of, 61, 175

Anomy, terror of, 23, 26, 49–50, 90; alienation with, 94

Anthropology, problems of, 78–79; and social world, 85; and false consciousness, 94; and religion, 176–77, 180, 185

Antinomian Movement, 98

Antiquity, classical, 124

Anxieties, and self-denial, 55

Apologetics, in the Church, 159

Apprehension, in socio-cultural world, 87

Aquinas, Thomas, 182

Arianism, condemnation of, 77

Arjuna, 87–88

Asceticism, mysticism of, 64; and liberation, 97; life of, 122

Asia, Eastern, 34, 135

Atahualpa, 45

Atheism, methodological, 100, 180; scientific, 110

Atman-brahman, and Hindu soteriology, 67

Atrocities, Nazi, 78–79

Authoritarianism, political, 34, 57; paternal, 38; of the laity, 133, 139

Authority and Power in the Free Church Tradition, 204

Autonomy, measure of, 4...