Religion and Desecularization

Abstract

Until 1970s, Peter L. Berger—like most sociologists of religion—supported thesis that modernity necessarily leads to secularization. He considered that presumed secularizing effect of modernity was rendered plausible by Max Weber's thesis of of In The Sacred Canopy, Berger agrees that Protestantism, which had divested itself of the three most ancient and powerful concomitants of sacred—mystery, miracle, and magic, was a major driving force behind disenchantment of Western world. However, he points out that roots of process can be traced back to Old Testament. In The Desecularization of World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics Berger also explicitly postulates existence of a counter-trend, namely desecularization or counter-secularization. And in a paper entitled Reflections on Sociology of Religion Today, he declares interplay between secularizing and counter-secularizing forces to be one of most important questions for contemporary sociology of religion.