6 Quotes & Sayings By Peter L Berger

Peter L. Berger, Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus of History and Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has taught at the University of Chicago, New School for Social Research, and Stanford University, and is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin Read more

Dr. Berger was Founding Chair of the Department of History at San Francisco State University, where he was also Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Founded in 1963 to honor the life and work of Max Weber, this center today serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research into social theory and its application to contemporary culture and society.

Dr. Berger has published widely on Weber, Marx, Freud, Durkheim, Durkheim's disciples (Jaspers, Mannheim), Weber's disciples (Habermas), modernity (and the "anomie" that haunts it), Marx's early work (particularly his unpublished notebooks), Adorno (particularly his later writings), American culture (particularly its relation to modernity; see The Year 2000: A Framework for Speculation on National Character), America's emergence as a postmodern nation, and the relationship between postmodernity and postindustrial society. His latest book is a critical study of American culture since World War II: The Fate of Modernity: From Novelty to Dissonance in Contemporary America .

1
A few years ago, a priest working in a slum section of a European city was asked why he was doing it, and replied, 'So that the rumor of God may not completely disappear. Peter L. Berger
2
I think what I and most other sociologists of religion wrote in the 1960s about secularization was a mistake. Our underlying argument was that secularization and modernity go hand in hand. With more modernization comes more secularization. Peter L. Berger
3
The past is malleable and flexible, changing as our recollection interprets and re-explains what has happened. Peter L. Berger
4
In a market economy, however, the individual has some possibility of escaping from the power of the state. Peter L. Berger
5
Even if one is interested only in one's own society, which is one's prerogative, one can understand that society much better by comparing it with others. Peter L. Berger