Peter Berger (1929) is an American sociologist best known for his collaboration with Thomas Luckman in writing The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. That book argues that human reality, and knowledge of it, is a social construct, emerging from the individual or group’s interaction with larger social structures (institutions). Social structures, once widely adopted, lose their history as social constructions (objectivation), and come over time, by the people who live within them, to be deemed natural realities independent of human construction (reification). Berger predicted, in his later book, The Sacred Canopy, near-term all-encompassing secularization of religion, which prediction has proved false, especially in the third world (as Berger himself has acknowledged in his later work, Desecularization).

神圣的帷幕 : 宗教社会学理论之要素 = The sacred canopy elements of a sociological theory of religion

Against Our Will Men Women And Rape

The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church The Forgotten Ways Handbook: A Practical Guide for Developing Missional Churches

Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire

Book Review: The shaping of things to come: Innovation and mission for the 21st-century church.:

Deutero-Isaiah’s theology of exile is contextualised in this thesis in the light of post-Christendom Australia, with a focus on evangelical Christians who are leaving the church, but generally retaining faith. The methodological approaches to Deutero-Isaiah utilised include: historical-criticism, rhetorical criticism, and sociological insights, particularly trauma studies. Feminist and postcolonial studies provide useful conversation partners to the topic. After establishing the literary and social context of Deutero-Isaiah in general, the key chapter for the thesis is Isaiah 49:14-26, focussing on personified Zion’s accusations to YHWH regarding her abandonment (forsaken/ forgotten terminology). This chapter is followed by shorter comparative chapters looking at Isaiah 50:1-3 (imagery of divorce, reconciliation and forgiveness); 51:17-52:6 (a polyphonic text imaging Zion’s rape, comfort and consolation); and, 54:1-17 (barren woman imagery, confession of abandonment by YHWH). Finally, hopeful possibilities for new communities of post-church people informed by ancient texts are explored.

Angela S Sawyer

Papers

Faithful Exiles: Reading the Exilic Theology of Isaiah 40-55 in the context of Post-church Australia