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Berger's Plausibility Structures: A Response to Professor Cairns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Extract

Few sociologists can afford to ignore Peter Berger, and theologians only do so at their cost. Berger's contributions to both the sociology of knowledge and the sociology of religion are important and widely influential. However, I think he would be the first to admit that his specifically theological contributions are more tentative and exploratory. Professor Cairns ably shows that in fact Berger's theological ideas have shifted considerably over the last decade. From a highly Barthian position, distinguishing rigidly between ‘religion’ and Christianity, he has now almost become a natural theologian, appealing to ‘signals of transcendence’ within the experience of everyone, whether Christian or not.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1974

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References

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