Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
Sociology
Date of Award
5-2010
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Paul Kamolnick
Committee Members
Martha Copp, Michael Allen
Abstract
Peter L. Berger's conception of agency in his earliest writings (c.1954-1960) is logically and empirically inadequate. At the root of this inadequacy is an idealism that prevents him from providing a compelling account of actual empirical agency. Chapter 1 asserts that Berger's earlier works warrant analysis. Chapter 2 discusses Berger's earliest influences, particularly Max Weber and The Swedish Lund School of motif research. Chapter 3 identifies a unique commitment to Christian Humanism at the base of Berger's conception of agency. Chapter 4 clarifies how Berger's Christian humanism interacts with his Weberian, and Parsonian-inspired functional analysis of the American religious establishment. The thesis concludes (Chapter 5) by identifying more specifically how and why Berger's Christian humanism undermines his attempt to empirically ground human agency.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Greene, James, "Peter L. Berger's Early Conception of Agency: Exposition and Evaluation." (2010). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1706. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1706
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.