The Invisible Religion: The Problem of Religion in Modern Society

Description

The Invisible Religion has been a highly influential text, and also the concept that its title embodies. The theoretical context of the work provides its point of departure. It forms part of Luckmann's concerted effort to understand the locus of the individual in the modern world. Sociological approaches to religion, deriving from the sociological classics, form a central theme within this quest. Luckmann's essay aims to reestablish this connection, insisting that the problem of individual existence in society is essentially a "religious" one. It is, precisely, the lack of theoretical reflection within the flourishing subdiscipline of the sociology of religion in the postwar period that concerns Luckmann. The association of religion with church has oriented a whole generation of scholars toward a relatively narrow field, the more so in that church-orientated religion has become a marginal phenomenon in modern societies. To redress this balance, Luckmann opts firmly for a functional definition of religion but differentiates this from the structural-functionalism prevalent in contemporary sociology. Luckmann regards as problematic what is taken for granted in sociological functionalism. His perspective is, essentially, an anthropological one.