Invisible Religion: Religious Issues in Modern Society

Author: Lukmann (Germany), translated by Qian Fangming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-10-01
Features: In our era, the autonomous existence of the individual seems to have become problematic. What is the impact of modern society on the life journey of the individual? How can one maintain their autonomy in this society? Beyond its connection to social science theories, this question also carries a specific and urgent significance for contemporary people. The problem of the individual in society is a "religious" issue, and the relevance of sociology to contemporary people primarily stems from sociology's exploration of the fate of the individual within modern social structures. This book is recognized as an authoritative work on the relationship between religion and modern society in Western academia. Its main argument is that in modern society, religion has transformed from the "visible religion"—a belief system based on institutional foundations like the church—to the "invisible religion" based on individual piety. Lukmann's purpose is to establish a modernity theory that differs radically from Weber's "disenchantment" thesis and the Frankfurt School's "mass society" theory.