The Role of Religious Experiences and Religious Institutions
Comparing Peter L. Berger’s and Hans Joas’ Approach to Religion
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12201796 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Isaak Deman (0000-0002-7995-2631, Doctoral Researcher, Department of Systematic Theology and the Study of Religions, KU Leuven Leuven Belgium, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 328-348 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-13 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Method & Theory in the Study of Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0943-3058 • E-ISSN: 1570-0682 |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/15700682-12341514 |
| OpenAlex | W3204195482 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 25 |
Hans Joas (born 1948) has repeatedly criticized Peter L. Berger (1929–2017) for placing religious experiences in the cognitive realm, where it runs the risk of being “contaminated” by secularization and pluralism. Instead, Joas has proposed to locate religious experiences in the “deeper layers” of the human person, where it is protected against mere cognitive reductionism and against contamination by secularization and pluralism. Despite his critique, Joas follows a similar path of Berger, as he explains the phenomenon of religion from an inductive point of view that originates in the experiential realm. This article demonstrates how Joas’ approach operates on a similar methodology like the one of Berger and ultimately results in similar theoretical conclusions despite their differing theoretical foundations. Moreover, this article illuminates an implicit methodological similarity between Joas and Berger that, on the one hand, differs from one of the taken-for-granted methodologies in the discipline of sociology (of religion), and, on the other hand, strongly influences the disposition of religious institutions in their definition of religion
Epistemology · Holism · Philosophy of religion · Pluralism (philosophy · Political science · Realm · Reductionism · Religious pluralism · Secularization · Sociology · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Religious studies
A rumor of angels
The New Sociology of Knowledge
Peter L. Berger and the Sociology of Religion
The heretical imperative
From the Social Construction of Reality
Peter Berger and the Study of Religion
Faith as an Option
The Many Altars of Modernity
The academic position of the sociology of religion in modern science
Redeeming Laughter
An interview with Hans Joas
Religionssoziologie in Deutschland seit 1945
Methodological Atheism, Methodological Agnosticism and Religious Experience
Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist
The social construction of reality
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Redeeming Laughter
Questions of Faith
Ernst Troeltsch
Some Second Thoughts on Substantive versus Functional Definitions of Religion
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |