Work · Sociology & Social Theory
The Invisible Religion
Religion does not disappear in modern society; it leaves the churches and becomes a private matter of individual meaning.
Introduction
Thomas Luckmann first published the argument in German in 1963 as Das Problem der Religion in der modernen Gesellschaft; the expanded English version, The Invisible Religion, appeared in 1967. He criticises the sociology of religion of his time for equating religion with churches and measuring its decline by church attendance. Following Durkheim and Weber, he defines religion very broadly: the human organism transcends its biological nature by forming a self within a symbolic universe of meaning. In modern society this function shifts to the private sphere, where individuals assemble their own “sacred cosmos” from themes such as self-realisation, family and sexuality, offered on a market of meanings. The book anticipated later debates on privatised and individualised religion.
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