STH mourns loss of Peter Berger, Professor Emeritus of Religion, Sociology and Theology
Brookline, MA – Peter Berger, Professor Emeritus of Religion, Sociology and Theology, died on June 27, 2017, at the age of 88. He was Professor Emeritus of Religion, Sociology and Theology in the CAS Religion Department, and was the founding Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (CURA). At the School of Theology (STH), he most recently worked with the Center for Practical Theology in a series of conversations and he collaborated in the annual Peter Berger Lecture, co-sponsored by CURA and STH. Peter’s founding of CURA was a major gift to Boston University, and it continues to thrive as part of the Pardee School of Global Studies, with which STH continues to partner.
STH Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore reflects that Peter’s legacy “runs deep and wide in multiple fields, especially the sociology of religion, sociology of knowledge, and theology. His work has been ground-breaking for a vast range of people wrestling with thorny questions of human culture, religion, secularity, and meaning. His written legacy will go on, but his large personal presence will be missed by everyone who knew him.”
Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies Dean Adil Najam also shares that Peter “was amongst the most notable intellectuals of our age and his book The Social Construction of Reality is considered a classic. The founding and nurturing of CURA – now a part of the Pardee School family – is only one of his many outstanding contributions to Boston University.”
Nancy Ammerman, Professor of Sociology of Religion in the Sociology Department of the College of Arts and Sciences and in STH, offers that “Anyone who knew Peter not only knew his amazing intellect, but also his addiction to humor. He always had a new joke to share and frequently punctuated his theoretical excurses with a vivid story. But even more than humor, Peter was shaped by faith, the kind of faith that is built on skepticism, not certainty. Over the years he wrote almost as much about theological questions as about sociological ones, but his theological work was always deeply informed by his humanistic sociological sensibility. It’s a rare combination, but one I have valued and learned from.”
Please click here for additional information on Peter Berger’s life and work, courtesy of the Pardee School of Global Studies.
Click here to view the feature published by BU Today on Friday, June 30, 2017.