Peter L. Berger

Academic Career

Ph.D., Sociology, New School for Social Research, 1954
(U.S. Army, 1953-1955)
Research director, Protestant Academy, Bad Boll (Germany), 1955-1956
Assistant professor, Woman’s College, University of North Carolina, 1956-1958
Associate professor and director of the Institute on Church and Community, Hartford Theological Seminary, 1958-1963
Associate professor, then professor, Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research, 1963-1970
Professor, Rutgers University, 1970-1979
Professor, Boston College, 1979-1981
University Professor, now emeritus, Boston University, 1981-
Director, now senior research fellow, Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, 1985-

Major Books

Invitation to Sociology, 1963
The Social Construction of Reality, (with Thomas Luckmann), 1966
The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion, 1967
A Rumor of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural, 1969
The Homeless Mind: Modernization and Consciousness, (with Brigitte Berger and Hansfried Kellner), 1973
Pyramids of Sacrifice: Political Ethics and Social Change, 1975
The Heretical Imperative. 1979
Sociology Reinterpreted, (with Hansfried Kellner), 1981
The War over the Family, (with Brigitte Berger), 1983
The Capitalist Revolution, 1986
A Far Glory: The Quest for Faith in an Age of Credulity, 1992
Redeeming Laughter: The Comic Dimension of Human Experience, 1997
Questions of Faith: A Skeptical Reaffirmation of Christianity, 2004
Religious America, Secular Europe ?, (with Grace Davie and Effie Fokas), 2008
In Praise of Doubt: How to Have Convictions without Becoming a Fanatic,
(with Anton Zijderveld), 2009

Honorary Degrees

Loyola University; University of Notre Dame; University of Geneva; University of Munich; Sofia University; Renmin University of China.