Peter Berger is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Theology, and a Senior Research Fellow of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs (CURA) at Boston University. He is also a distinguished visiting professor at Baylor University. He studied for his BA at Wagner College and was awarded his MA and PhD from the New School for Social Research.  He has been awarded honorary degrees from Loyola University, Wagner College, University of Notre Dame, the University of Geneva (Switzerland), and University of Munich (Germany).

 

Professor Berger previously taught at the New School for Social Research, at Rutgers University and at Boston College.  He has written numerous books on sociological theory, the sociology of religion, and Third World development, which have been translated into dozens of foreign languages.  Among his more recent books are Redeeming Laughter: The Comic Dimension of Human Experience (1997); Modernity, Pluralism and the Crisis of Meaning (with Thomas Luckmann, 1995); The Capitalist Revolution: Fifty Propositions About Prosperity, Equality and Liberty (1988); and The War Over the Family: Capturing the Middle Ground (with Brigitte Berger, 1983).

 

In 1992, Professor Berger was awarded the Mannes Sperber Prize, presented by the Austrian government for significant contributions to culture. In 1985 Professor Berger founded CURA. The institute is a research centre committed to the systematic study of relationships between economic development and socio-cultural change in different parts of the world.