Rethinking Secularization

Theologian Albert Mohler has an interesting interview with influential sociologist Peter Berger:

Mohler: For many years you’ve been at Boston University and your books have been so influential. I remember the Sacred Canopy as one of the earliest of your books that I read but had followed through so many others. And your writings also in a journal like First Things when you wrote the article Secularization Falsified . I want to step back for a moment and say that if you’d been known for anything in particular, you know I think most people would immediately come up with the idea of secularization, can you just kind of help us to understand the origins of secularization theory?

Berger: Well it’s a rather heavy term. I don’t know if it’s that much of a theory I mean it’s basically an assumption that’s been around for a long time. That as the world becomes more modern it becomes more secular that is less religious. And when I started out my career as a sociologist, particularly a sociologist of religion, I shared what was a very broad consensus among scholars and historians, social scientists, and many theologians. I mean they didn’t like the idea that the world is becoming more secular, but they thought it was a fact. Well it took me about twenty years or so to realize that this was a mistake. I would say secularization theory has been massively falsified and with one or two interesting exceptions the world today including the United States is very religious, and secularists are a minority in most of the world.

Here is a direct link to Berger’s Secularization Falsified .

(Via: Justin Taylor )