The Role Religion has on Social Structure
The Sacred Canopy by Peter Berger offers a way to gain new perspectives on how we construct different realities in society for ourselves. Berger didn’t seem to be interested in convincing us that religion is a spiritual phenomenon, but rather he offered a perspective on how religion plays a role in our social life. This is because we live in a world that places value on cultural aspects. Individuals want to have meaning, so religion plays that specific role by creating and preserving that for individuals in society. What Berger focuses on as important in the first part of the book is that humans need to have meaning and order. He also discusses the ways that humans function with religion as a way to shield themselves. In the second part of the book Peter Berger examines, the process of secularization and how it can have an impact on religious traditions involving individuals within society. In the first chapter religion and world construction, Berger’s interpretation reveals that humans lack instinct so we are always being forced to find ways …show more content…
What he tells us is that alienation is the “duplication of consciousness results in an internal confrontation between socialized and non-socialized components of self, reiterating within consciousness itself the external confrontations between society and the individual” (1967:84). Therefore, the process of alienation according to Peter Berger happens in society when individuals do not adopt certain aspects of society. These individuals tend to forget that the world needs to co-produce together, which essentially alienates individuals from the rest of society. Perspective is lost , and things begin to seem strange to the individual in regards to certain aspects of their socialized self within
The Sacred Canopy by Peter Berger offers a way to gain new perspectives on how we construct different realities in society for ourselves. Berger didn’t seem to be interested in convincing us that religion is a spiritual phenomenon, but rather he offered a perspective on how religion plays a role in our social life. This is because we live in a world that places value on cultural aspects. Individuals want to have meaning, so religion plays that specific role by creating and preserving that for individuals in society. What Berger focuses on as important in the first part of the book is that humans need to have meaning and order. He also discusses the ways that humans function with religion as a way to shield themselves. In the second part of the book Peter Berger examines, the process of secularization and how it can have an impact on religious traditions involving individuals within society. In the first chapter religion and world construction, Berger’s interpretation reveals that humans lack instinct so we are always being forced to find ways …show more content…
What he tells us is that alienation is the “duplication of consciousness results in an internal confrontation between socialized and non-socialized components of self, reiterating within consciousness itself the external confrontations between society and the individual” (1967:84). Therefore, the process of alienation according to Peter Berger happens in society when individuals do not adopt certain aspects of society. These individuals tend to forget that the world needs to co-produce together, which essentially alienates individuals from the rest of society. Perspective is lost , and things begin to seem strange to the individual in regards to certain aspects of their socialized self within